The Touch of Prometheus
by Aline Carneiro
Summary: Harry Potter is is attending his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a new person appears in his life, his godmother, Sheeba Amapoulos, she has a vision of his future, what can change some things in his life. Written originally in po
1. 1- Sheeba

THE TOUCH OF PROMETHEUS   
Written originally in Portuguese, english version: Fabianna Bluhn  
Thanks to my beta readers: Silvia Rodrigues and Audrey Fischer.  
  
Prologue:  
  
Harry Potter, the boy who lived almost-defeating You-Know-Who, is not a little boy anymore. He is fifteen years old and is attending his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and you may know it all. But you maybe do not know that past was quite difficult for him and he faced alone the strong Dark Lord, event which had been a mark in his life. He thought this year would be quite hard...  
However, as a great astonishment to Harry, it is already spring, and nothing has happened yet. Until now, Lord Voldemort is strangely quiet, maybe preparing some rather disgusting surprise... but we shall not think about this right now. Today is a Hogsmeade's visit day and he will meet his renegade godfather, the murder convict Sirius Black.  
  
Chapter One - Sheeba  
  
Harry opened his eyes; it was Hogsmeade day's morning and early spring. He mentally recapitulated every instruction given by Sirius in his last owl: he should bring a pet collar to the ride, and using this, he should pretend to walk Sirius's canine form. It would be the only opportunity this year to be with his godfather, who was completely engaged in chasing and catching Wormtail alive, thus he would release himself from the accusation that made him a renegade wizard for long fourteen years.  
Harry could not help but finding the situation quite funny; just to have some butterbeer with him, his godfather would need to disguise himself as an enormous dog. But Harry Potter was already used to this, after all ever since he started to study at Hogwarts, his life could be considered everything except normal.  
He straightened himself up and looked straight at Ron, who said in a heartened tone of voice, "So, are you ready to meet Padfoot?" Harry nodded.  
They met Hermione at Gryffindor's common room, and she had already put Crookshank's collar, properly augmented by the use of a spell, in her bag. "I must have never done a better and quicker spell!," she exclaimed, "I hope this collar doesn't squeeze Padfoot."  
"Oh, just she knows how to perform expansion spells," said an irritated Ron Weasley, "Astonishingly Intelligent Miss Know-It-All and her psychopathic cat..."  
"If it wasn't for my 'psychopathic' cat, maybe you would still be walking around with an Animagus in your pocket."  
"Can't you two stop arguing?," Harry demanded. Last year, Ron had started teasing Hermione even more, especially after Viktor Krum, Bulgaria's Professional Quidditch Team's captain and Hermione's confessed admirer, had started sending her regular owls.  
In about half an hour, when they arrived at the arranged place, a big dog showed up and dragged them to the back of the trees, where he became Sirius again.  
He were way too different from the last time Harry had seen him, and surprisingly, he was wearing muggle clothing (although those were not exactly common clothes). His hair was short and his face was less skinny than it was when Harry last saw it. He was wearing a very shabby black leather jacket, whose back had a dog printed in, a normal black shirt and very shabby-looking pants, which were ripped all over and once had been black.  
"I've been walking like this around muggle people because I don't want to attract attention. We've lost Voldemort from sight again and he sent Wormtail to London, where he'll meet some other piece of Death Eater, probably Karkaroff; he's been seen there. If I follow them or at least one of them, I'll have a chance to clear my name. Remus's waiting for me there and we'll try to catch them," Sirius looked worried, as usual, but soon he opened his arms and asked, "So, Harry, Ron and Hermione, do I look like a muggle?"  
"You look like a rock star...," said Harry, fighting against a grin, due to his godfather's flamboyant clothing.  
"Or like a motorcyclist," Hermione added between laughter.  
Harry wondered what aunt Petunia would say if she saw somebody wearing this kind of clothes and laughed at the thought of it.  
"I used to wear these when I had my motorcycle," Sirius sighed, "Pity it was confiscated."  
Harry had already heard about the giant motorcycle Sirius used to have when he was his parents' best friend. Before he could feel sad, he suggested everybody to walk to Hogsmeade. Sirius turned back into a large dog and Hermione put the enormous pet collar on him. Harry, who was worried about reminding them of what they had arranged to do, held it. "If somebody ask..."  
"Okay, we know it," said Ron impatiently, "this dog belongs to Dumbledore and we're taking it to have some butterbeer... just Dumbledore's dog would drink butterbeer, aren't I right?"  
They walked back to Hogsmeade heading to the pub "Three Broomsticks", where they chose a table in the corner. Madam Rosmerta did not like the dog being there very much, but as they said it belonged to Dumbledore, she started liking the animal's presence better.  
Harry spilled a butterbeer bottle on a plate and Sirius started licking it up happily.  
Some minutes later, a witch came into the pub, and instantly, a dead silence dominated the place. Harry thought he had seen her somewhere else he could not remember of. She was a middle-height woman, very pretty. Her hair was black and very long and her eyes were black (and had thick eyelashes that smoothed her stare). She was also as white as snow and had a dark birthmark that looked like a scythe in the middle of her forehead. The woman did not use common witches' robes, but a very tight corselet (Harry could not remind of seeing a woman with such a thin waist before) over a long sleeved cobalt blue (which was bright and dark) shirt; her pants were as black as the corselet, she was also wearing high heeled boots, leather gloves (black too) and a hooded cloak that was clue inside and black outside (the hood was lying in her back).  
As she passes through the people, they chased away, as if they did not want to touch her.  
The very moment Sirius saw her, he choked and flinched, behind Harry. It seemed he did not want to be seen by the woman, even though he was in his canine form.  
She shook the bell on the counter and the sound of it passed away in the air. "Rosmerta!," she said smiling, not affected by the gloomy silence around her, "I'd like to have breakfast, and you know what my order is. I'll be sitting there."  
To Ron, Hermione and Harry's great astonishment, she pointed at their table. It seemed she realized the fear that was present in the air, as she said astonished, "I may reassure you all," she showed her gloved hands, "I won't foresee anybody's death in this place."  
Quickly, everything - except for Sirius, who was stirring up without moving - seemed to be normal again. The woman knelt by him, not affected by the snarls and fangs Sirius was showing her, and whispered, "No need to be worried, Padfoot. I know you're not guilty.," she smiled and touched his head lightly as if he was a pet, what made everybody at the table - including Sirius - be quite amazed. She stood up and said, "Harry Potter, I held you in my arms when you were just a little baby. May I sit here?," and before anybody could pretest, she sat down on the chair, crossing her legs. An angry Hermione protested, "Who do you think you are to sit at our table?"  
"Calm down," the woman said, slightly touching Hermione's fingers, "... Hermione Granger, we have much more in common than it seems we do. I'm just as muggle-born as you are and I used to be Head Girl at Hogwarts."  
"But I am not..."  
"You aren't yet, dear," the woman smiled, touching Ron's hand before he could pull it back, "Ronald Weasley, the sixth of seven children... you shall have a better future than past. You'll be the greatest of your family, even greater than your father, who will be the Minister of Magic. And you'll have a pretty good marriage," as she said it, she blinked slyly at Hermione's direction.  
Ron and Hermione were as red as pepper in embarrassment. The woman stopped smiling and glanced at Harry, who bit his lip, sure that many grim foresights were just waiting for him. That moment, the woman's breakfast arrived: dragon's blood liqueur and a strange-looking dark-leaf sandwich. Inattentively, she touched the pub's owner's hand, and she flinched.  
"Rosmerta, you don't need to be afraid of me; I have some good news for you: be ready to expand your pub. You'll be the next winner of the Magic Lottery."  
"But I don't even buy the tickets!"  
The woman's expression was grave, "In three days, a skinny toothless, baldy peddler will show up here selling some stuff, among a white-and-green lottery ticket. Buy it. Don't give your good luck to those who don't deserve it. If you don't buy the ticket, a dark wizard will."  
Madam Rosmerta walked away, seeking refuge behind the counter. Even though it was a good prevision, it frightened her.  
The woman looked at Harry again, "Harry Potter, didn't you know that you had not just a godfather but a godmother too?"  
Harry's jaw dropped. He knew it now. This woman was at his mother's side in his parents' wedding photograph. He had not recognized her before because she was way too different from then, as Sirius was. Her hair, in the photo, was short, and the scythe-looking birthmark was hidden behind her bangs. "My name is Sheeba Amapoulos, and I am your godmother. Don't be frightened, I didn't come here to predict your death; I prefer to leave those idiotic predictions to Sybil Trelawney," she smiled, "I used to be your mother's best friend, just as Sirius Black used to be your father's. Unfortunately, I've predicted, but I couldn't avoid her death, however, I did also predict - and told her - that you would save the world from Lord Voldemort."  
Many heads turned to the woman, looking at her in reprimand. As Sirius, she did not fear the Dark Lord, and did not bother about saying his name.  
"Harry, I've got many things to tell you, I need to tell you why you never knew about my existence, but firstly I need to settle accounts with... with him," she pointed at the dog and he snarled at her. She grinned and said, "I'm used to this kind of manifestation, dogs hate people who have the Touch of Prometheus," she started eating her leaf sandwich and sipping the steaming red liqueur. "Did you know, Harry, that these leaves just grow at the Moravian Dark Forests and that they are unicorns' favorite meal? They grow under the ice and are the most nutritive food in the world. Once I passed days without eating anything but these leaves, and believe it or not, I wasn't hungry at all. You ought to taste some..."  
Hermione, who looked curious, cut her off with an inquiring glance, "How can you foresee the future? I've been informed it's a very inaccurate field in magic..."  
"Indeed. Your genial Divination teacher... I know it, in your case, your genial ex-teacher, Herm. Can I call you Herm? Well, as I was telling you, Sybil may have told you, this is a matter of gift... there are many premonitory gifts, some are more, others are less precious, some reach more, other less. You must comprehend that Time, Herm, is a very subtle thing... when does future start being present? Nobody knows. Some minds - and it has nothing to do with cleverness - can foresee future and past as they see the present. And you shan't think," Sheeba was looking directly at Ron, "that it's a blessing. You saw my popularity as I arrived here..."  
"And what kinds of gifts are these? I've never read anything about this..."  
"Hermione, there are people who can't see the future, but from whom it's impossible to hide anything you've done in the past. Those are the Sniffers of the Truth. A Sniffer can tell if you're lying just by looking into your eyes; and doing this, he can even know exactly what you are hiding. It's like having a Veritasserum bottle by hand... many wizards - and even muggles - have this gift. Unfortunately, the Dark Wizards found out that the Sniffers can be stopped if their eyes are pierced. I've known many Sniffers who lost their gift by this way...," she took a breath and went on, "There are people able to say what nobody else would about future events, mostly tragedies. But their premonitions usually aren't taken seriously, and many times, they are so completely unbelievable, because those people don't see the normal future, only the extraordinary. Those people have the Touch of Cassandra.," she grinned devilish, "Sybil Trelawney would give her life to have this gift," she said "And, of course, there are the Fatalists. When a Fatalist looks at somebody, he knows exactly when and where this person is going to die. This, you may imagine, isn't very agreeable a thing. Most of the Fatalists I met are now at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies... this gift can make anybody mad," she went on, "Besides this and other premonitory gifts, anybody can receive the 'Blow of the Norns', premonitions that leave on their own the web of fate, and for some reason, they can assault any person. It's not a practicable gift. And, Harry, you must remember having seen a Blow of the Norns before, don't you? Professor Trelawney predicted, two years ago, the encounter of... well, you know what she predicted, don't you?"  
"And there is the Touch of Prometheus," she went on, "For those who have the Touch of Prometheus, life's quite hard. Future Predictions and Past Visions pass before our eyes painfully. We just need to touch a person or a thing to know things - sometimes nearly everything; sometimes almost nothing, but never anything - about them. It's impossible to stop the 'Touch' completely, but one can always soothe or avoid it by the use of a Stunning Spell, or, if you're the clairvoyant, you can filter it hiding your hands under properly conjured fabric. This makes the conviviality with the curse easier. These gloves on me," she showed her hands, "make me have only good predictions and, of course, it avoids trouble. I'm here in the Ministry of Magic's service," she showed the Ministry Police badge, "I've been appointed to protect both the village and Hogwarts, and I've also got to help the Aurors by predicting the arrival of any Evil Power. I'll take you all to my house now, we really need to talk. And it won't help if he... if he tries to run away from me."  
Harry looked suspiciously at Sirius. The resigned dog nodded. Harry was extremely curious to know why the hell his godparents were so hostile to each other.  
The group walked across Hogsmeade and stopped in front of a house, just in front of the supposed-to-be-haunted village's house. It did not have any doors and its windows were completely full of bars, what made it look like a very ill-looking case without style, differently from all the other houses in the place.  
The funny thing was that Harry had been to Hogsmeade many other times, and he had never seen this house before. Sirius was quiet and annoyed, but was still following them.  
"This is my house!" Sheeba said cheerfully as if she was showing them a mansion, "I can't live anywhere else, so I carry this one everywhere. It's the only place in the world, beyond Hogwarts, where I'm able to feel home..." she did not explain how she carried the house, "And there's only a way to get in it," she showed them a key and a tiny door hanging in a key-ring, "Using this key. Stretch out your hands. Harry, hold the dog, we're going to get in," and she turned the key in the tiny door, and then, in just a moment, they were in her house.  
The inside of Sheeba's house was completely different from its outside. The windows were big and did not have bars, and the house itself seemed much bigger (a common thing when it puts concern on Magic Houses). There was an immense room without any furniture, and in a corner, there was a round-pool under a glass roof; there was also a staircase that headed to a raised platform made out of wooden rods and then to the second floor and some doors that probably led to other rooms. The view from the window was different from Hogsmeade's landscape; there was a beach in front, and another beach behind; the sky that could be seen from the glass roof was very clear and had a summer sun that seemed the house was located in the Tropics.  
"Wow!," said Ron, "You have a conjured view here! My mum always wanted it to our house."  
Sheeba grinned, "At your right, the Egeus Sea, at the left, the Caribbean. The sun is from Morocco. This house was built by the best Magical Designer in the world! I've found out where his younger daughter, who ran away to marry a muggle, was. This house clean itself up by its own and I can choose the furniture according to my aura. Bauhaus!," she said, and modern pieces of furniture - in many shades of yellow and blue - sprung up. The white walls turned into yellow and the floor was now canary-yellow, "This is my favorite ornamentation."  
Her house was comfortable and its temperature was very agreeable. Sheeba touched herself with the tip of her wand and her clothes were transfigured into long cobalt-blue robes, and her feet were now covered by blue fluffy rabbit slippers. An excited house-elf showed up, "Miss Sheeba, Miss Sheeba! Do Miss Sheeba want something, Miss Sheeba, lady? Water, Moravian Leaves, Dragon Blood Liqueur, Miss Sheeba, lady? Lemonade to Lady's guests, lady? A bone to half-ton dog, lady? Your little Smiley begs for a task... please, lady!"  
"I've got a task for you, Smiley: go to your room and rest for at least two hours. Don't come back before the time."  
"Smiley can't stand resting anymore!," the elf muttered as he headed to the kitchen, "This house that clear up by itself can't suit a house-elf!"  
Sheeba sighed, "My house-elf isn't a slave, somebody gave me him as a gift and I don't want to free him, for I know he would end up working to a less generous wizard than I am... you see, Hermione, how we have things in common?"  
Hermione shot a triumphant glance at Harry and Ron, who thought she would probably invite Sheeba to join SPEW. But Sheeba did not bother about this; she just knelt in the middle of the room, staring at the dog. "Sirius Black, show yourself," Sheeba looked at the dog gravely, and he immediately turned back into Sirius. She held a breath of emotion when Harry's godfather showed up in front of her, his black eyes shooting her a severe look.  
They stood silent for a moment, looking at each other from the opposite sides of the room. Sheeba was holding her wand in her right hand, and it seemed that they were going to duel, except that Sirius did not have a wand. Harry did not have the faintest idea of what was going to happen, and neither did Ron nor Hermione.  
Both Sirius and Sheeba started speaking, and it was quite difficult to understand what they were talking about, since they were practically talking at the same time, cutting each other off harshly. Sheeba looked at Sirius in fury and tapped her wand against her left hand impatiently, and as she was doing this, a dark smoke was arising from the tip of her wand slowly, forming a cloud on her head that let out some sparks and little lightning on the air in just a few minutes. Harry, Ron and Hermione could distinguish from the violent argument things such as "HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY SAY THAT I DIDN'T HELP YOU? I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU FOR FOURTEEN YEARS!"  
"IF YOU KNEW I WAS INNOCENT, WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU SEEK ME, SHEEBA? DO YOU HAVE THE FAINTEST IDEA OF WHAT DOES TWELVE YEARS IN AZKABAN MEAN?"  
"WHAT DID YOU WANT ME TO DO? I TOLD YOU THAT YOU WERE THE ONLY ONE WHO COULD BE THE POTTER'S SECRET KEEPER AND YOU DIDN'T LISTEN TO ME! THIS WAS A TRUE BETRAYAL!"  
"I DIDN'T BETRAY ANYBODY! IT WAS WORMTAIL! YOU KNOW IT, REMMEBER? YOU'RE MISS KNOW-IT-ALL, REMEMBER?"  
"WHERE THE HELL DID YOU HAVE THIS STUPID IDEA OF TRUSTING PETER?"  
"HE WAS MY FRIEND! YOU'VE NEVER TOLD ME HE WASN'T TRUSTFUL!"  
"I HADN'T TOUCHED HIM, DO YOU REMMEBER THAT, MISTER SIRIUS ARROGANT BLACK? BUT COULDN'T YOU SUSPECT SOMEBODY WHO WAS ALWAYS SO AFRAID OF ME?"  
"IT WASN'T ME WHO HAD THE TOUCH OF PROMETHEUS, WAS IT?"  
"WHY THE BLOODY HELL DIDN'T YOU SEEK ME WHEN HE DIDN'T SHOW UP?"  
"YOU HAD VANISHED IN THE EXACT MOMENT, DO YOU REMEMBER THAT? FOLLOWING THAT BLOODY DAMN SNAPE! YOU DIDN'T EVEN TELL ME WHERE YOU WERE!"  
As the discussion was getting more violent, the cloud on Sheeba's head was growing, until she shouted, "I couldn't do anything!," and she burst into tears, almost at the same time that the cloud on her head started pouring an intense miniature storm over her. Thunders echoed over the room, and a huge puddle of water was spreading over the witch's - who was completely soaked now - feet. Sirius took a deep breath and stopped for a while, a feet away from her in silence, and then he asked Harry, "Harry, can you lend me your wand?,' Harry passed his wand to Sirius, who took and pointed it at the cloud and said, "Flora!". At the same moment, the dark cloud turned into a blue one, from which many big camellias (of the same color) were falling. Sirius was looking quietly at her, and Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other with the same puzzled expressions. Her robes were dried in less than a second.  
"I didn't forget your favorite flowers," said Sirius as he came closer to Sheeba, "if I knew back then when I was in Azkaban that you knew I was innocent, I'd have at least a happy thought to deceive those Dementors."  
To Ron, Hermione and Harry's surprise, Sheeba put her arms around Sirius's neck and they kissed passionately. Ron hid a mock laughter under his hand; Harry and Hermione shot him a reproof glance. The couple continued kissing in the middle of the room for what seemed like an eternity.  
Sheeba whispered, "Sirius, we need to explain everything to them."  
He turned around to face Harry, "Harry, you already know your godmother, Sheeba. Well, I guess I had to have told you before that we were... are engaged," Sirius put an arm around Sheeba and whispered, "Oh God, I missed you..."  
"Why didn't anybody tell me about her?," Harry was annoyed because nobody had ever told him that he had a godmother.  
"Harry," Sheeba began, "if you want to know why you hadn't met me before, you'll need to know all the story about my turning into your mother's best friend, and then, your godmother."  
Sheeba invited them all to sit down on the enormous couch that rounded the room, and then, she sat at Sirius's side, holding his hand, and after a deep breath, she started telling them her story.  
  
To be continued...  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. 2- Memories

Chapter 2 - Memories

Chapter 2 - Memories

"I'm the seventh child. My parents, as Hermione's and your grandparents, Harry, were completely Muggle. My dad was Greek and my mum, Egyptian. We used to live near the harbor, in Southampton. When I was born, everybody find some peculiarities about me: my skin was way too pale and I had this birthmark here," Sheeba pointed at her forehead, "We didn't have much money; basically, we were poor, like your family, Ron. Since I was a little girl, I used to have inaccurate forebodings when I touched people. Those presentiments were like a blur, and my life began to be affected by them as they started being more and more clear and accurate. I simply touched people and said what popped into my mind, and strangely enough, everything I said was right. It, of course, caused fear on people, and what you'd just seen at the Three Broomsticks has accompanied me for my whole life. The adults thought I had some kind of demoniac power. When I was seven, I saved a girl's life. She happened to be a dear friend of mine. I've touched her at school and said 'Don't use the old abandoned quay as a shortcut'. She didn't take my advice seriously until the last moment. At the edge of the old quay, she turned aside, just in time to see the dock sinking under a strong wave. This made her avoid me and everybody started looking at me as if I was some sort of calamity messenger."

"Everybody except a policeman who lived near my house," she added, "Don't ask me how, I still don't know, but somehow, he knew Albus Dumbledore, who was currently the Head of Gryffindor House at Hogwarts. They were friends, even though the cop was a Muggle. I met Dumbledore when I was eight and when he first saw me, he got astonished. There was over a hundred years since the last witch who had the Touch of Prometheus was born, and I, a Muggle, had it. Certainly, the Ministry of Magic would end up finding me, but the first one to find me was Dumbledore. He didn't need to, but he wanted to test my skill: he touched my hands and smiled. Immediately, I saw that a powerful Dark wizard wanted to kill him. When I told him about this foreboding, he smiled again and told me all about Lord Voldemort, how he was gathering power and that he would soon try to destroy and enslave Muggles. Before he could have told me anything, I knew who I was and with whom I was. I wouldn't let anybody do harm to families such as mine. After this event, Dumbledore started sending me regular owls."

She took a breath, "At the right time, I got Hogwarts's invitation letter. I was considered an investment by the Ministry, so they gave me all the books and stuff I needed to study, and also a hundred-galleons scholarship so then I would be able to buy the stuff for the following years. My parents had never understood well what I used to do, but as I was studying without giving any expenses to my family, everything was welcomed. I remember every detail of the day I arrived at Hogwarts. The first student I met, still at the Hogwarts Express, was a displeasing hook-nosed boy, who knew everything about me. Severus Snape. He challenged me to predict his future, and then, I touched him and told him what I saw: he would be deeply sorry for every wrong choice he would do," she said, "Then he told me that no 'mudblood' could ever be a good witch, but he walked away from me, frightened by the prediction."

"Then," Sheeba went on, "I met a lovely girl, who had auburn hair and green eyes. She was your mother, Harry. Lily. When I touched her, I discovered she was like me, but much more special. There was something about her, an air of kindness and fondness. I knew she would be my best friend at that very moment," she said, "However, there's one thing people who have the Touch of Prometheus can't predict. Their own future. This made me frustrated for a lifetime, but my first real frustration was at that very first day at Hogwarts, at the Sorting Ceremony. I was so sure I would be a Gryffindor, since it was the house in which Dumbledore, my mentor and best friend, was in. When they put that hat on my head, it yelled just as it touched me, 'Ravenclaw'. I walked grimly to Ravenclaw's table. In the middle of my way, the boy who was going to be sorted next said 'Cheers, maybe we even end up together at Ravenclaw?"I turned around just in time to see Sirius Black's cynical grin before the Sorting Hat covered his head. I abhorred him from that very moment on, and I thanked God when he was sorted into Gryffindor."

"As soon as I sat at Ravenclaw's table," she said, "they gave me a thick pair of gloves and a recommendation: I should never touch anybody without them on my hands. Those were Reflector Gloves, and I would spend six of the following seven years I would attend Hogwarts with my predictions under control. I always thought that that would be the happiest day in my whole life, and it ended up being the worst, and it got even worse when Lily was sorted into Gryffindor. I was isolated, sitting next to a blabbering insupportable sort of girl, who was fascinated for premonitions: Sybil Trelawney, my roommate at Ravenclaw. She assured me she could foresee the future, however, even before I could touch her, I knew she was indeed nothing more than a fool."

"I was deeply depressed when Dumbledore made things easier for me by saying that Hogwarts wasn't always what we expected from its outside, but the more I would learn there, the more I would like being there. Then he told me I would have an extra class per week since that very first year with Professor Viviane Lake, who used to taught Divination then. The purpose of beginning such a class so early was to tame my gift so it wouldn't dominate me and then, I wouldn't suffer from the Prometheus's Syndrome: the despair before what was unavoidable. My first days at Hogwarts weren't less horrible than my very first was: I used to hear whisperings and murmurings everywhere. You know it very well, don't you, Harry?"

She looked at her godson, "Being considered special is a heavy burden. And just to get even worse, with those gloves, I could be considered everything unless special. Without the only magical power I knew, it seemed I was less than a Muggle. I could barely hold my wand; the gloves disturbed me. Our first Transfiguration class, along with the Slytherins, was humiliating: I was supposed to turn my eraser into a stone. I was the only student whose eraser didn't transform in anything at all. You can imagine what Slytherin's gang made, can't you? All the horrible jokes were aimed directly at me."

A faint smile played on her lips, "It was your mother who saved me, Harry. I was very, very depressed after another fiasco in Charms, and deeply believing I was a complete Muggle, or worst; I was thinking that I wasn't neither Muggle nor witch. Defeated, humiliated, a nothing. Slytherin's gang, leaded by Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape, had gotten the taste of humiliating me in public. Lily got closer to me and said that I was gifted, that I was a real witch, or else, Dumbledore would never have invited me to Hogwarts... I doubted it, then. At this exact moment, Lucius Malfoy was planning a peculiarly cruel joke about the fact of the 'Mudbloods' be getting always closer to those of the same kind. Just then I saw how really powerful Lily were: she turned on her heels, and then I saw she wasn't the sweet and kind girl anymore; she faced him with a haughty stare and said 'Malfoy, you're calling us Mudblood because you're afraid, isn't it? You're afraid of not being a competent wizard and losing your place to Muggle-born witches like us. Just imagine if Sheeba remove her gloves and predicts this nasty future for you? You're scared of what she's going to say then, aren't you?'"

"From that day on," Sheeba went on, "Lily helped me a lot. It was your mother who taught me not to complain for having to wear gloves. She helped me discovering talents I did not know I had; I studied a lot to find out each little spark of magic I had inside, and the results were cheering me up, so then I became one of the best Ravenclaws."

"Besides your mother," she said, "my best friend was Professor Viviane Lake. With her, I learned that some things are better left unsaid. She never wanted to hear a word about her future. She had the Touch of Cassandra and was the first witch in the world to predict Voldemort's arise. I found out in my first class with her that she would be horribly killed by him. I would spent the next seven years trying to give her hints about this, but she insisted on ignoring them. Vivian Lake also showed me why I was sorted into Ravenclaw: the defiance of being among those you aren't fond of is essential to keep the premonitory gifts under control. If I had been sorted into Gryffindor, I wouldn't have had nothing to fight against, and I probably would end up being mediocre in everything, except in the gift I already had and would have very little to polish in it."

"My friendship with Lily was my best foundations," Sheeba said, "shewas like a sister to me, and I dare say, I was like a sister to her, even though we were very different from each other. We resembled two different sides of the same coin: Lily was kind, sincere and calm; I was bold, the provoking-kind and very irritable. There was a group of four boys who used to annoy us, not like the Slytherin gang, but still... Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter. Sirius loved to say how nasty-looking my gloves were, what made me rough. Among those four, only Pettigrew used to share the fear of me I could feel in the other students. James, Remus and Sirius didn't seem to be afraid of the future at all," she went on, "In our second year, when James started playing seeker in Gryffindor's team, Sirius's jokes started irritating me even more. Then I made something I shouldn't have done: I decided I would use my gift secretly on him. I hid myself behind I pillar, awaiting for him to show up, and I slowly took off my gloves. I saw when the four of them were getting closer, and then, I prepared myself to throw myself at Sirius, but instead of touching him, my gloveless hand touched Remus Lupin! I heard a howling and saw the unmistakable silhouette of a werewolf. I stepped back, horrified as I was. He looked at me with a scared look on his face and ran away. I ran after him to tell him his secret would be safe with me. And when I was with a gloved hand and a gloveless one, Dumbledore found me. I saw disappointment in his eyes and I felt enormously ashamed of what I had just done: I had disobeyed an order that was given to me for my own sake, and I used my gift in a stupid and frivolous way. I deserved the punishment I got for doing this: the gloves were conjured in my hands by Professor Lake and were just taken off at my Divination classes. I looked for Remus to apologize, and I found a very furious Sirius. He told me that Remus's secret could have been destroyed by me, and that he would be expelled from Hogwarts. He also told me that I deserved being locked up with Remus when hewas turning into his wolf form. Nowadays, I think it would have been way better if I had touched accidentally Peter instead of Remus, so then I would have found out who he was before it was too late," she sighed, "To forget what I had done, I decided to talk to Professor McGonagall and tell her I wanted to be a registered Animagus. As usual, she loved students being hardworking, so she gave me all the support I needed and became my particular mentor in this task."

Hermione interrupted Sheeba at this moment, "Oh, I know where I had found your name! You turn into a..."

At this very moment, Sheeba turned into a huge white tiger, and then, into herself again. "Unfortunately, my vanity prevented me from choosing a more useful animal," Sheeba laughed, "I apologized to Remus Lupin, and my relationship with their group got better and better from our third year on. Except with Sirius, who insisted on making inconvenient jokes about my gift. He loved to call me a 'Miss Piton Know-it-All', what annoyed me terribly. We argued every time we met. A teacher witnessed a discussion of ours, and gave us detention, what was right indeed. We would accomplish our detention at that night, under Filch's alert eyes. We would have to clean the trophies from the Prize's room... without magic. I obtained authorization to take off my gloves, so then I wouldn't damage them. We started cleaning the trophies, and Sirius and I were in opposite sides of the room. Filch was bothering us when Peeves, the poltergeist, showed up and carried with himself an enormous Quidditch trophy cup. Filch ran after him. At the moment, I picked up a trophy to clean it, and I had a terrible vision that knocked me off. When I came back into reality, Sirius was leaning over me, listening to my heart beats. He thought I was dead."

"'What are you doing, you moron?', I asked, and for the first time in my life, I saw Sirius losing his presence of mind," she said, "He asked me what had happened, and I remembered the trophy. I pointed to it and said 'This trophy is a lie; it was awarded without merit,' and then, Sirius asked, 'Who the hell is Tom Marvolo Riddle?'. I knew it, and I didn't want to hide it, so I said, 'It's Lord Voldemort, Black.'"

"From this day on, we stopped showing hostility towards each other," Sheeba went on, "I accidentally touched Sirius's hand when he helped me in that Detention, and I found out he wanted to be an Animagus too, but secretly. I knew he wanted it in order to help Remus. As time passed by, we were in our fifth year when an embarrassed Severus Snape came over to invite me to the Ball. Even though I didn't know who was Sirius going with, I said I would go with him. I would do anything to get rid of Snape. Then, I immediately ran towards Lily and told her what had happened. She assured me Sirius hadn't invited anybody to the Ball, so I asked her to ask him to invite me. Sirius always had a strange ability ofgetting closer without being noticed and listening to my conversations with Lily. I don't know how much of it he had listened to, I just realized he was listening to it when I heard the sound of mock laughter behind me, and then, the statement 'So Miss Piton needs my help?'... before I could start an argument, Sirius made a mock bow and invited me to escort him to the Ball in a very mock way. He looked up at me and said between laughter, 'Don't you even think about refusing me, miss... imagine then, you'll have to spend all the Ball dancing with that hooked nose snake!'. At the Ball's day, Sirius really seemed to be willing to provoke Snape, since he didn't let me stop dancing for a single minute."

Sirius cut her off, between laughter, "I'd drank some Restless Feet potion, and I'd secretly put some in her punch too... I wanted to make her dance with me the whole Ball. Then, I thought it was just to tease Snape, but actually, I was in love with her ever since I first saw her at the Great Hall. The Ball ended and we went on dancing for over an hour, in the middle of the house-elves who were cleaning the hall, and our feet didn't seem to be willing to stop. She thought it was very stupid to dance without music, so then I started singing, to hers and the elves' despair."

"And you sing terribly bad," Sheeba said as she laughed and covered her face with her hands, "After this event, I realized Sirius and Snape were hating each other more and more. At the same time, I was getting closer to Sirius, explaining to him how an Animagus transformation was. He didn't have the faintest idea that I knew all about his plans. Without even touching him, I knew when he succeeded in it; we were in our sixth year at Hogwarts. He was joyous, and then, I told him I knew about his transformation in Animagus and that I knew it ever since that day in the Trophy room. He gulped, and after that, we talked very little about this. In that year, Slytherin and Gryffindor disputed the final match of Hogwarts's Quidditch championship."

"It was usual for your mother to hold my hand very tight during the matches, because she always got very nervous, Harry," said Sheeba, "I was cheering Gryffindor, as almost all the other students were, and I saw, along with your mother, as your father captured the snitch just some feet above our heads. She held my hand almost painfully when James Potter smiled showing the snitch in his hand and winked at her. Immediately, I said, 'You and James Potter will get married'. Lily looked at me astonished: I was her best friend and she hadn't ever told me anything about her love for James. Besides, I was using my Reflector Gloves! I grinned and showed her a minuscule hole in my gloves' fabric. I 'd been collecting forebodings through that hole. At that time, I was already a prefect, and I wasn't used to break rules aimlessly... Lily asked me suspiciously the reason why I kept that hole in my gloves, and then, I said, 'I want to know if Sirius Black's in love with somebody,' so then, I heard a voice just behind me."

Sirius interrupted her and said, "You don't need to have the Touch of Prometheus to know I want to date you, Sheeba Amapoulos. Wasn't exactly this what I said?"

"Exactly," Sheeba answered, a smile playing on her lips, "And, as far as I can remember, the best time in my life begun from that day on."

To be continued.


	3. 3- Dark Times

CHAPTER 3 – DARK TIMES

CHAPTER 3 – DARK TIMES

Sirius went on with Sheeba's narrative, "Sheeba and I started dating almost at the same time as James and Lily did. We kissed for the first time exactly at the place where two years ago I ran away from Hogwarts with Buckbeak. Remus didn't change at all; I knew he was very fond of both Sheeba and Lily, however, Peter started feeling excluded from our circle of friends in order of I being dating Sheeba, and James being dating Lily. I and James tried to show him that nothing was changed, but he always said he didn't trust on Sheeba, and he never allowed her to get closer to him. We thought it came from his cowardice. At the end of our sixth year at Hogwarts, Sheeba could finally get rid of those damned gloves, changing them eventually for some special gloves which just allow good forebodings. When she touched me…"

"Although Sirius was part of my life," Sheeba went on, "what prevented me from having great predictions about him, when I touched him without my gloves, I heard horrible cries of pain and a terrible anguish. I saw him suffering for a great deal of time, what made my heart get broken, afraid. I wasn't fainting when I had strong predictions, as it happened before. However, I always saw a good thing: Sirius would always be against Voldemort."

"At that time, the Dark Times begun; many wizards started to get very frightened," she said, "There were many death rumors that a little afterwards were confirmed. Lord Voldemort was close to acquire the maximum power. And those who were afraid of him even refused to say his name. Our group – except for Peter – didn't make it. Albus Dumbledore was our mentor and we weren't afraid of Voldemort, as he wasn't either. Our Graduation day at Hogwarts arrived. As my heart was beating twice as fast as usual, I heard my name being called to the Futurology Commission of the Ministry of Magic. I wouldfinally work with my forebodings and make a good use of them: against the Dark Forces. Sirius, Remus and James would be part of a Combat Order against the Dark Wizards. Lily would be specialized in healing those wizards who were hurt in the combats. Peter Pettigrew asked to work in a more distant place, he said he wanted to engage himself in the combats far away from his friends. Everybody believed in this, except me, who always had doubts about him. However, I never had how to confirm anything. Severus Snape also disappeared."

"Lily and James got married a few days after our Graduation. I and Sirius wanted to do the same, however, my work at the Commission was exhaustive as Sirius's at the Direct Combat also was. My work was collecting the rests of duels andclues of those who had disappeared and then, find out what exactly had happened and where should the Aurors go to find wizards who committed any atrocity… I had a 100% index of rightness. At the end of the day, I usually was really jaded. At this time, Sirius was way too far from me, but we talked to each other everyday, and sometimes, he showed up on his enormous motorcycle and went out with me. At these moments, we both wanted to forget we were living in the Dark Times…"

"So then, Voldemort turned his attention towards the Order which Sirius, James and Remus were part of. Lily was pregnant and invited me and Sirius to be Harry's godparents. Your christening day was the last time I saw your mum. It was a happy day among the hard times we were living: I and Sirius got engaged then. I decided I would take off my gloves and touch James and Lily to find out if they were in danger. When I touched your dad, I saw he was in much more danger than even Sirius. I told him that they needed to hide as soon as possible. So then, I touched Lily, and I saw her dying for you, Harry. I knew then that I couldn't avoid her death unless Sirius was their Secret-Keeper. He was the only and last chance, and for me, it was quite clear. I made James and Lily promise they would use Sirius as their Secret-Keeper. Then, I held you in my arms, Harry. I immediately saw a sharp green light in the darkness and you crying. A moment later, more of this green light and a cry of pain. I looked astonished at your innocent childish face and said, to everybody's surprise 'This boy,' I told Lily, 'this boy is the solution! He's going to save the world from Voldemort!'"

"It didn't occur me that, for that purpose, the Fidelius Charm ought to be broken and your mother would have to die," Sheeba went on, "I wasn't counting on a lost link in the chain. Sirius walked be to home and again, I made him promise he would be the Potters' Secret-Keeper. It's necessary six months to guarantee the Fidelius Charm success. During this preparation, I assured that Sirius would be the Secret-Keeper. I communicated with the couple and with Sirius everyday. One day, at a normal labour day, I fell across the rests of a duel, in which one of the participants had surrendered. It was Severus Snape. The other duelist was doubtlessly Albus Dumbledore. I rode my broomstick to Hogwarts and I found Dumbledore safe and sound. Then I asked what I already knew 'Why did you forgive Snape, Headmaster?' I knew Voldemort had appointed Snape to kill Dumbledore. Dumbledore headed me towards the Hospital Wing where Snape was lying unconsciously, the Dark Mark glowing on his forearm. I touched it and I forebode what I had seen years ago: the bitterness of sorrow. Severus Snape had changed his convictions."

"I also saw Snape in the future; helping our side, and then, teaching at Hogwarts… and picking on you because of the anger he felt towards your dad. Dumbledore told me once, 'Sheeba, Severus used to think that he would be important just as he was the hammer. Now, he'll discover the importance of being the anvil. While he is among the Death Eaters as a Double Agent for our sake, he will be taking beatings like an anvil, but he's effort is going to placate his heart.' I didn't understand his words then, for I was way much worried about Sirius and Potters' Fidelius Charm. I didn't talk to him for about two days. I needed to come back before the charm was concluded, but something delayed me in almost a week: Professor Viviane Lake was kidnapped in Hogsmeade. Voldemort wanted to hear about his future, and as he wasn't glad with what he heard, he killed her without mercy. I just found her when it was too late. I thought the next one would be me."

"Then, it happened. The Potters were killed and you know what happened next. The whole Commission turned against me. They said I was wrong when I chose Sirius as the Potters' Secret-Keeper. They said I let myself be covered because of the fact he was my fiancé. Even though I had hit rock bottom, I decided I would make my last work: examine the place where Sirius had been arrested. I needed to know the truth. The first thing I saw was Peter Pettigrew's finger, and as soon as I touched it, I knew. Sirius **_was_** innocent, the owner of that finger was alive, and killed the thirteen Muggles around just to incriminate Sirius. As I stated this, I was summarily fired and almost considered conniver. I was forbidden to see Sirius, and it was Dumbledore who saved me from going to Azkaban."

"He showed the Commission a dossier saying that I was under much emotional commotion when I examined that place, and that it may had confused the Touch of Prometheus. Among other things, he said that Sirius had been taken by the Dementors in the day that we would be getting married. When Dumbledore talked to me in private, he told me that it would be impossible to prove that Wormtail was alive without showing where he was. Dumbledore himself didn't believe Sirius was guilty, but he didn't have how to prove if he was innocent or not. Sirius's behavior seemed just to be showing he was really guilty. After all, I never knew that Wormtail turned into a rat. Voldemort took upon himself to cast a charm at Pettigrew, a Confusion Charm. And any prediction I would make about him would be as incoherent as if made by a Cassandra."

"Dumbledore made me admit I could have been wrong. It would be my first mistake in years, exactly about the man I loved. The Ministry of Magic didn't want me anymore. So, I asked Dumbledore to help me, I was willing to go away from everything and everybody. It may seem strange, but Dumbledore hide me among the Muggles. I was going to work secretly for the police by the means of the policeman who had been my neighbor, as a paranormal examiner. I was considered eccentric by my Muggle colleagues: I used the phone very little, I had an owl in my office, pictures of a man , who nobody ever ventured to ask who he was, on my desk, in short, a madwoman who helped the solution of more complex cases. I went on with my 100% index of rightness between the Muggles, plus I had the advantage of dealing with much less careful criminals than wizards were. During this time, Harry, I accompanied you from far away. I had to struggle so then I wouldn't turn that awful family into an onion plantation…"

"I'd been among Muggles for ten years when I got a letter from Dumbledore: the Ministry's secret police needed somebody like me: although many people hated me, there was nobody else able to take the job," she said, "The last available Cassandra died of age, and nobody trusted on charlatans like Sybil Trelawney. I was hired with the best salary and big boss status. During all those years, I've been looking for Wormtail without succeeding. I couldn't ever have known that he would spend 12 years transformed. I can barely stand being a single day as a tiger…"

"To know how Sirius was doing," she went on, "I used to make use of a resource: I touched his personal objects – mainly his engagement ring - that were with me. I knew that in his minds, he could only think of his being innocent. I cried in relief every time I saw that Sirius kept his mental sanity even though he was surrounded by Dementors. One night, I woke up with my heart beating twice as fast as usual: I knew Sirius had escaped from Azkaban. I've passed over a year awaiting for him to look for me when I received a letter from Dumbledore in which he apologized for distrusting my foreboding. He told me he had talked to Sirius, who said that he didn't want to see me. Sirius was hurt because of me, after everything I had done. Dumbledore also told me, in the letter, everything I didn't know about Wormtail. My prudence made me wait more. When the evidences of Voldemort's been arising again were quite visible for me, I started looking for hints about Wormtail, this time knowing more things about him, and passed them to Dumbledore. When I was transferred to here, I've just been waiting for the right moment to meet you, Padfoot."

"I've never gotten closer to you, Harry, because I didn't want to cause you trouble. The last thing a boy like you need is trouble for having a godmother who is looked-upon dislike by the Magical World; having a renegade godfather seemed awful enough. I reconsolidated prestige as a witch, and now, I know my reputation won't do you any harm. Almost fifteen years ago, when I touched you, I knew I wouldn't have the right to interfere in the bad things you would be through, because they would make you stronger, as my being sorted into Ravenclaw made me stronger too."

Sirius looked seriously at Sheeba when he said, "Now that you explained everything to our godson, give me my engagement ring back."

"First of all, you need to stop using lent wands. I won't be engaged again with a wizard who doesn't have even his own wand to use…" she took off carefully a long and light wand from her robes, "Let's see… oak and unicorn hair, sixteen and a half inches," Sheeba mimicked mockingly Mr. Olivander, the wand maker.

Sirius, whose jaw had just dropped, asked, "So it's been with you for all the time?"

"Yep, and so is your motorcycle, that is in the garage," she laughed, "but you have to promise me you'll just use it after you clear your name."

Sirius seemed to agree, but he had a look on his face that told Harry that he was not going to keep this promise.

To be continued… 


	4. 4- The study

CHAPTER 4 – THE STUDY

CHAPTER 4 – THE STUDY

Sirius stood up in a leap and told the kids, "You'll witness it: Sheeba, give me your engagement ring," in a mockingly solemn tone, he knelt and said, "Sheeba Amapoulos, will you marry me?"

"Of course I will, you nitwit, or else I wouldn't have awaited for you for fourteen years."

"Okay, do you believe that soon I will clear my name?" now, Sirius's tone was serious. Carefully, Sheeba took off her gloves and touched lightly his hands. As an answer, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

"I guess it's a yes," said an annoyed Ron.

Sirius reassumed his serious tone Harry was already used to, "I'd be glad if you forebode what's going to happen with him."

Sheeba stepped forward and touched delicately Harry's face. Harry closed his eyes. His godmother's hands wrapped his face. They were soft and strangely cold. Nothing happened. Sheeba was quiet. Harry opened his eyes and fell across her unreadable eyes staring at his scar.

"Harry," she said, "there's a problem. You're under a Confusion Spell."

"And this means exactly that…?"

"That I can tell you very little about your future."

"And what can you see?"

"Only you and the Dark Lord."

"Fighting?"

"No, not fighting. Falling."

"Where?"

"I don't know, a chasm maybe."

"When?"

"I can't tell exactly. It may be soon."

"And… will I die?"

"I don't know."

Silence fell heavily over everybody at the room. All the agreeable atmosphere of moments before dissipate. Harry smirked and took his godmother's hand slowly off from his face. "Sheeba, don't get annoyed, it's not the first time my perspectives aren't good ones. At least you don't know if I'm going to die or not, what makes me start from scratch… all I can do now is being careful with high places."

"Harry," Sirius laid a hand on Harry's shoulder, "Don't be worried. You know I'll always keep an eye on you. If you fall in a chasm, I swear I'll reach you, no matter what, even if it's the last thing I do."

"I know Sirius, I know you… Sheeba, would you mind if from now on I acted like Viviane Lake? I think I don't want to know anything else about my future. You won't be upset, will you?"

"Not at all, Harry, I don't mind those things. I just want to know who did this to you."

"Why?"

"Because I can bet it was somebody from Hogwarts," a cold glow flashed in Sheeba's eyes, "And I sure will find out who it was."

After the frustration Sheeba's prediction caused, nobody else at the room felt much enlivened, except for Smiley, who was waling around offering the contents of a tray full of exotic foods. Everybody was not enlivened enough, so the tray was left untouched.

Until an unquiet Sirius said, "Sheeba, we need to do something today. I'm going to London tomorrow to meet Moony, and the more we progress today, the morewe'll be able to protect him. We can talk to Dumbledore; I can go as a dog."

"Sirius, Dumbledore isn't at Hogwarts," Sheeba said.

"What do you mean by 'he's not at Hogwarts'?" Ron was suspicious, "He would never leave Hogwarts in the middle of a school year!"

"Today, he needed to go out, and he'll just be back in about two days."

"How can you know it without touching him?" Hermione asked in her usual inquisitive air.

Sheeba stood up and took her want out of her robes. Approaching a wall, she said, "I'll show you," she touched the wall with her wand, "Doorperson, wake up!"

A door sprung up on the wall. It was a wooded door with a huge face chiseled in its center. The face was deep asleep, snoring. Sheeba touched its nose with her wand and it opened its somnolent eyes, twinkling. Then, it seemed to be getting scared and said, in a solid German accent, "Frau Sheepa! Good morning! Be welcomed to your Study! Who are these people?" the face seemed suspicious, "Ma'am knows the rules…"

"They're my guests, Doorperson! How many times do I have to tell you…"

"To suspect the other people, not you ma'am., I know, but they are **_the others_**!"

"I'm her fiancé! Are you going to argue with me?" Sirius had a threatening look on his face.

"Okay," the wooded face sighed, "What is the use of German technology if they don't respect the rules…" it continued grouching when they stepped through the door.

"German technology!" Sheeba said as she entered the completely dark room, "It's a second-handed door. Okay, then. Blaze!"

"Yes, Miss Amapoulos?" a hoarse voice asked in the dark.

"Light!"

"Ambient or study light?"

"Study light."

Instantly, the room was completely illuminated. On the contrary of what Harry was thinking, it was not a narrow room, but a huge hall that resembled a laboratory. On the walls, the shelves reached the ceiling, full of every shapes vials, in which there was every kind of common objects. Every vial had a label with a name written.

"Thank you, Blaze," as Sheeba said this, one of the ceiling's lamps flashed repeatedly, "These are my files. Each vial contains an object that belonged to the person whose name's written on the label. The last time I counted, there was over twenty thousand vials."

"And how did you get these things?" Ron asked suspiciously as he looked at a blood stained knife inside a vial.

"Some of them are the result of ten years of work at the Muggle police, as this knife you're looking at. It belonged to a psychopathic murderer. I keep it here in case he tries to run away from jail. Other things are sent to me by disappeared wizards' relatives for me to find them. I do it as a freelance job. I also have objects from wizards who want to be monitored and others, I simply stole from people I needed to monitor."

Hermione cast her a glance as if Sheeba had already said any atrocity. Then, Harry understood the presence of a vial that contained a serpent ring and a label that had the inscription: _Severus Snape._

"Albus Dumbledore!" said Sheeba and immediately, a vial containing a long red and gold quill (phoenix's feather, thought Harry) flied from one of the shelves, laying gently on her hand. Sheeba opened it and took out the object. She walked towards a craftsman bench where there was a stone that Harry instantly recognized: a Pensieve.

"Where is Albus Dumbledore?" Sheeba asked, and at the same moment, the Pensieve showed shook itself and showed a room with an enormous round table which Dumbledore was seating at, along with many other wizards, in a conference. Among them, Harry could see the Auror Mad-Eye Moody and, to his great surprise, his ex-teacher, Professor Remus Lupin.

Sheeba went on, "Where is he going after this?" the Pensieve showed Dumbledore entering the Ministry of Magic's building, "And where is he going the day after next?" the Pensieve shook itself again and showed Dumbledore at his office, talking to somebody. He looked very serious and was explaining that he did not want that person to leave the school for absolutely anything in the world. The person he was talking to did not become visible. In his/her place, there was a blot, and when he/she talked to Dumbledore, one could not listen to his/her voice. When the Headmaster talked to this person by what would be his/her name, his voice simply vanished.

"The other person at Dumbledore's office is under the Confusion Spell," Sheeba said seriously, "That's why he or she isn't appearing in the Pensieve."

"So it must be Harry!" exclaimed a triumphant Ron Weasley.

"In two days, I know I'll be in trouble," Harry looked very disheartened.

"Not necessarily, Harry,"Sirius looked straight at his godson, "Don't you think this person can be also the one who cast this Confusion Spell on you?"

"Or even another person. With me around, many parents may have put this Spell on their children…"

"Isn't it Dark Magic?" asked a startled Hermione.

"No. Actually, it's even a way of protection to some people. It's simply the way some wizards find to have more privacy. There's no big deal in not wanting to know the future."

"But whoever cast this spell at me," said Harry, "isn't thinking about keeping my privacy. Absolutely not."

"Listen," said Sirius seriously, "It's time for you to go back to Hogwarts. I'm going to London tomorrow, but Sheeba will be here. I assure you she's going to find a way to discover who cast this spell at you. I just want you all to keep calm and to be away from trouble, okay?"

"You aren't exactly the best person to give this kind of advice," Sheeba laughed before Sirius's startled face.

To be continued…


	5. 5 - The garment

CHAPTER 5 – The garment

CHAPTER 5 – The garment

Harry, Ron and Hermione were preparing to leave Sheeba's house. Sirius took off Crookshank's collar, that was around his neck ever since they were at the pub, and handed it over to Hermione. "Thank you very much, but I won't need it anymore."

"Won't you come with us to the cave?"

"Nope, I'll stay here."

"Hermione, do you really, really think that while he can be at this house with Sheeba, Sirius would want to go back to that cave full of fleas?" said Ron and Hermione seemed to get really embarrassed, and put quickly the collar in her bag.

"Harry," Sheeba approached him with a package on her arms, "I also have a gift for you. I would have liked to give you a Firebolt, but Sirius did it first, didn't him? Anyway, I believe my gift's going to be useful."

Harry opened the package and took out from it something that resembled a rustic garment, weaved in black and gold fiber. It was not exactly good-looking, and the touch of it was rough.

"Wearing these robes, you can walk on fire without getting burned and you'll also be protected from Muggle bullets, knives and many kinds of spells, including Dark Magic. It can't only stop two of them: _Cruciatus_ and…"

"_Avada Kedavra_," Harry said without thinking.

"Exactly. Be careful with this garment, I took ten years weaving it for you."

"Why the hell does he need protection against Muggle bullets?" Sirius looked almost offended.

"I have an identical garment," said Sheeba, "It was very useful when I worked for the Muggle Police. And don't be jealous, Sirius, you can borrow mine tomorrow at London. And don't care about its queer appearance, Harry, for it gets invisible as you put it on your body."

"Okay, let's go," said Harry, "It's time to go."

They waved goodbye at Sirius and Sheeba, and then, they joined the students who were coming back from Hogsmeade's trip. When they arrived at the Great Hall, Ron commented, "Harry, what a godmother you have, eh? Sirius's a very lucky guy… can you imagine what they are doing now?"

"**_Ron_**!" Hermione exclaimed, shocked, "Don't be so rude!"

"Come on, Hermione, you're not a little girl anymore… you know what a man and a woman can do together…"

"Yes, I know, but you shouldn't talk about her like this; she's Harry's godmother and Sirius's fiancée!"

"This don't change the fact that she's a yummy woman."

"Harry! Are you listening to the foolishness he's saying?" Harry definitely was not paying any attention at all in this conversation, since he was already very worried about himself falling on the chasm with Voldemort.

"What? Oh, Hermione, let him say what he wants. Currently, Ron spends half of his time thinking about sex. Do you think he would have any chances with Sheeba? Don't be jealous."

"_Harry_! I'm not jealous of Ron! And I don't think there is anything very special about Sheeba… what makes her so special?"

"Thirty and something years, Touch of Prometheus, an incredible house, an exuberant personality and last but not least, what's really important: a fantastic shape."

"Ron, you're really getting sick," said Harry, "I think I'll turn in that magazines you keep under your bed…"

"Potter! Granger! Weasley!" the trio got cold as they listened to Professor Snape's disagreeable voice. They turned on their heels thinking about the same word: 'trouble'.

"All right. I'd like to know about what magazines are you talking about."

"No big deal," said an embarrassed Ron, "just some Muggle magazines I'm collecting… it doesn't give me Detention, does it? To read some comics?"

"Not comics, but… I think the magazines Mr. Potter was talking about weren't exactly these… I may ask Filch to make an inspection in your dormitory."

"It won't be necessary," said Ron, "I myself will bring my magazines and give them to you, sir… I think you're really needing them…"

_Oh, no, Ron! _Harry and Hermione thought at the same time.

"Ten points from Gryffindor. And I'll send Mr. Filch to your dormitory to make the inspection, and in your trunk too, Mr. Potter. What are you carrying under this package?"

"A gift from my godmother. I guess you know her, sir."

Snape was paralyzed. He looked at Harry, and now, he wore a completely different face, "Did she tell you she know me? Did she talk about me?"

"Not much, really."

"And how is she doing? We have some sort of… friendship."

"She's very happy," Harry lowered his tone of voice, "She and my godfather retied their engagement. I guess I can tell you that, since now you know he's innocent, sir…"

"Well… yes… of course… I'm happy for them… I think Sheeba deserves to be… happy. Excuse me, I've just remember I have something really important to do," he said and vanished, heading to the Dungeons.

As soon as he was out of sight, Ron said, almost rolling over with laughter, "Harry Potter, you prat! You've just broken old Snape's poor heart! Do you think he still had any hope he had a chance with Sheeba?"

"Something completely absurd," said Hermione, "But do you think she and Snape were really friends with each other?"

"Of course not!" said Harry. Suddenly, he remembered the vial with his name at Sheeba's study.

**

Sirius was at Azkaban. The Dementors dragged him to a room where a hooded Dementor was going to punish him with a kiss. In a corner, Sheeba watched to everything, tears rolling across her cheek. It was useless, nobody listened to him claiming he was innocent… he wanted to scream, but he could only manage to yank from his throat incomprehensible murmurs. The Dementor took off its hood. And then, Sirius finally managed to shout, "I'm innocent!"

The Dementor and Azkaban vanished Sirius found himself lying on a king-sized bed, absorbed into darkness. His mind clarified and he remembered where he was. He threw his arms at a asleep Sheeba, pulling her even closer to him, burying his head into her cold black hair. He wanted to forget. He wanted Sheeba. He missed her.

"The dream," Sheeba said without opening her eyes, "It's just going to stop when you put Wormtail into jail."

"Are you awake?"

"I woke up just as you did it," she kept her eyes closed, lying on her back, her face aimed at the ceiling. One of her arms was on her face. She started caressing Sirius's arm that was on her body, smiling, and still having her eyes shut, "Do you know what I missed more in those fourteen years?"

"What?"

"Your laughter. Your voice provoking me. Caressing you like this, feeling your arms' hair. Sometimes, I woke up in the middle of night from this same dream you're having, and I couldn't sleep anymore. Sometimes, I dreamed of you in your canine form, howling in the middle of darkness. That was the day you found to avoid the dream, wasn't it?" she opened her eyes and faced him. The conjured landscape's faint light illuminated the bed they were lying on. Sirius Black's eyes flashed concerned on her face.

"Yeah. It hurt even more because you always were in it."

"And it would be impossible if I wasn't. I slept wearing your pajamas to feel you near me. During fourteen years, I've always dreamed the same thing you did," Sheeba closed her eyes again, "Now go back to sleep, Sirius."

"I don't want to sleep," he said and kissed her passionately.

_To be continued…_


	6. 6 - Sirius Disapparates

CHAPTER 6 – Sirius Disapparates

CHAPTER 6 – Sirius Disapparates

Hours later, Sirius woke up. Sheeba were already out of bed, completely dressed, smiling at him. The conjured landscape showed the sun rising behind the sea.

"Good morning, sleepy-head," she said, "It's almost time for you to Disapparate."

Sirius twinkled many times, so then his eyes got used to clarity. "What time is it?"

"Half past six."

"I just need to Disapparate at eight," said Sirius and buried his face on the pillow.

"Hey, stop being lazy!" Sheeba laughed as she tugged him out of the bed, and then, they started a little 'war', in which Sirius tried to keep his body on the bed and Sheeba tried to raise it up. As Sirius was much stronger, he knocked her down on the bed between laughter.

"Seriously, Sheeba, why are you taking me off bed do early?"

"I'd like to show you some things."

"So show me!"

"_Accio_!" Sheeba pointed her wand at two photo albums that were on her beside, and they flied to her hands. She opened one of them and Sirius looked at it, finding something odd, "These pictures have some problem! Everybody's motionless on them!"

"Sirius, these are Muggle pictures. My friends at the time I worked for Muggle Police."

"They really look like Muggles…"

"But they are brave Muggles, most of them are really nice."

"Okay, praise to Muggle people by Sheeba Amapoulos. Why are you showing me these… pictures?"

"Sirius, you're going to walk around Muggles all the time in the following days, I wanted you to know some things so then you wouldn't do many blunders."

"Hey! I don't do blunders, okay? I know quite enough about Muggle, I'm not a moron."

"Well," Sheeba started, ignoring Sirius's indignation, "I want you to look at this, it's a fire weapon, a pistol. From its barrel, bullets come out…"

"Sheeba, I know what a pistol is. Did you forget that I ran away and hide myself among them for some time?"

"But you're still wanted by the Ministry, and I don't want you to run risks. Do you know what it is?"

"Of course I know! It's a remote controller! It's used to operate machines from a distance away," he looked triumphant.

"Nope. It's a cell phone." Sirius looked annoyed, his eyes kept looking for familiar things in the picture.

"I know what this is! It's a coffee-machine!"

"Wrong again; it's a machine that triturates paper… and this is what I need to show you," she said and pointed at the sprinklers on the ceiling.

"I've seen some of those in Muggle buildings. They are located on the ceiling, aren't they? Are they useful for what?"

"They're sprinklers. It's a Muggle system to fight fire. When a room is set on fire, the sprinklers automatically start to spout water."

"What a complicated thing!"

"I'm telling you this because yesterday I saw that you'd need to know everything about sprinklers and fire weapons, but I can't tell you why."

"Anything else?"

"Yes. Don't let Remus enter in a place whose door is green."

"Why?"

"If he enters there, he won't be out alive."

"What about me?"

"You can enter there. There isn't anything in that room that can do you any harm."

"And is there anything else you need to show me?"

"Well, Sirius… I need to tell you something… I wouldn't be honest if I hid those things from you."

"Don't tell me that while I was at Azkaban you had another man…"

"It isn't this! It's something else that I'm sure you'll despise, but I ask you at least to understand it," Sheeba opened the second album, in which there was magical pictures. She stopped in a page in which there were four pictures: ion one of which, Sirius was next to her, grinning, but once in a while, he frowned and disappeared, and reappeared in the next picture, where he punched somebody else, and retook his position next to Sheeba in the first picture.

In the picture that Sirius had "visited", between Sheeba and Dumbledore there was a wrinkled, wounded and black-eyes Severus Snape.

Sirius became angry, "What the hell is HE doing there?"

"That's what I'm asking you to understand. I and Severus have become friends."

"**_Severus_**? Sheeba, are you MAD? Calling him by his first name? Did you know he tried to give me to the Dementors? Do you have the faintest idea of how much I and Snape HATE each other? DO YOU?"

"Sirius, he isn't actually evil as it may seem for you…"

"No, he isn't evil at all, he was just one of Voldemort's stupid clowns, he only tried to kiss Dumbledore for his master, but in the deep bottom, he's all goody-goody, he's never done anything bad in his whole life…"

"You aren't evil either and you've already tried to kill him."

"You aren't protecting this snake, are you?"

"HE SAVED MY LIFE, SIRIUS!"

"… What?"

"Severus Snape saved my life. That's what I'm trying to tell you."

"He saved your life for what? When?"

"Do you remember Atalanta Myers?"

"The Death Eater?"

"Exactly. Almost all the Death Eaters had already been arrested or killed by the Aurors. I was already working for the Muggle Police, in London, when I saw her. I trailed her. She was living somewhere in Notting Hill, she was disguised as a Muggle. I sent an owl to Dumbledore asking him to send an Auror to London urgently, I didn't want to lose her track. He sent Snape, but before he arrived, Myers drove me into a corner.You know I can't predict my own future, and I didn't know she was just behind me."

"What happened next?"

"Atalanta cursed me, using Cruciatus, she had in her hands some robes that belonged to Voldemort, she wanted to oblige me to touch it and reveal where he was. She wanted to bring him back to life. At this very moment, Snape showed up. Atalanta didn't have the faintest idea he had changed his convictions, his side. He distracted her enough time until Mad-Eye Moody left the shadows, disarmed her and arrested her. But at this moment, I was nearly dead."

"And how did Snape save you? Did he give you a potion?"

"No. He gave me the life kiss."

"WHAT? THAT SLIMY SNAKE KISSED YOU?"

"WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE HIM LET ME DIE?"

"No," Sirius said in a tiny voice and it seemed he came back into reality again for a minute, and then, he said, looking annoyed and embarrassed, "Wasn't there any other way out?"

"If there was, do you think he would give up a whole year of his life for me?"

"I think he would do anything to kiss you."

"Don't be stupid. It's easy to say it now having me safe and sound standing just in front of you, but imagine me nearly dead. Do you think Snape would take advantage of this? If it wasn't him, I would have died before I could enter at St. Mungo's Hospital. Do you understand now why we are friends? You can't have your life saved by someone and despise this person!"

"Do you know how Snape treats Harry?"

"Did you know he saved Harry's life?"

"It was his duty, after all, once James also saved his life."

"Sirius, he promised me he would stop harassing Harry."

"It seems he isn't the kind of guy who keeps his promises. Just guess in which subject our godson gets his worse grades?"

"Okay, all talk to Sever… to Snape again I think he and Harry will end up getting along with each other. And so will you two."

"Yeah, sure, when hell freezes over," Sirius stood up, looking for his clothes, "Where are my Muggle clothes?"

"In the wardrobe. I washed them, they were filthy…"

"I'll take a shower. I'm stinking as a dirty dog and my head needs to be cooler."

Sirius vanished for some moments, and Sheeba stood seating at her bed, exhausted by the argument they had just had. She had already seen Sirius taking showers before and getting out of the shower shaking his whole body as a wet dog, however, this was the first time she saw Sirius getting into the shower without singing badly as he usually did. She thought why she came to love a guy who was so temperamental…

A moment later, he showed up wrapped by a towel and started dressing his now-cleaned clothes that still had their punk look. Then, Sheeba lent him her Protective Garment (identical as Harry's) and Sirius put it on his clothes without saying a single word. As the tunic touched his body, it disappeared.

"See you later," he said, still annoyed.

"Won't you kiss me goodbye?"

"Bye," he said and Disapparated.

Sheeba stood up irritably. It would be better if she went to her job, she had many things to do today.

To be continued… 

  
  



	7. 7 - London - St Petersburg - London

CHAPTER 7 – LONDON-ST PETESBURG-LONDON

CHAPTER 7 – LONDON-ST PETERSBURG-LONDON

Sirius Apparated in a public restroom inside West End station in London's subway. A guy in Muggle clothes that vaguely resembled a wrinkled suit had his back turned at him and was using an urinal. When Sirius arrived, he turned his face to him and said "Hi". It was Remus Lupin. Sirius turned around, visibly embarrassed.

"Sorry, Moony. I guess I've arrived at the wrong time."

"That's okay, it happens," Lupin smirked as he concluded what he had to do and washed his hands, "My werewolf scent tells me I'm in front of a very annoyed guy…"

"Some things happened this weekend… I met Sheeba…"

"That's great, isn't it? It was time for you to come to an understanding with her…"

"Yeah, but he argued again…"

"Why?"

"Snape," Sirius growled.

"Oh, yes. She told me about it once. They're friends with each other," Lupin turned inside out his bag, looking for something, "Oh, I found it," he took out of his bag a large pet collar.

"And you think it's normal?"

"Listen, Sirius. You're the most hard-headed person I've ever met. Sheeba loves you and you know it. She waited for you for FOURTEEN years. Don't you think that if Snape had the furthest chance with her she wouldn't have gotten sick of waiting? But if you dump her…," he handed the collar at Sirius, "Can you put on this collar, please?", he said, "Well, if you dump her, Snape will come to comfort her, full of kindness… and then, one can't tell what'll happen…"

Sirius was struggling to put on the collar and Lupin started helping him. At this very moment, a very well-dressed Muggle entered the restroom and looked at them astonished. Lupin grinned and said cheerfully, "Theatre! We're rehearsing for a performance!"

The Muggle seemed to have given up whatever he came to that restroom to do and left the room muttering, "**_Perverted gays_**!"

"What did he say?" asked Sirius.

"Nothing… can you transform now? It's a disguise, we've got to go to St. Petersburg 'cause I need to buy a wolfsbane potion. I can't manage to do this junk properly, so I'd better buy a prepared one."

Sirius turned into a dog. Lupin put on a pair of sunglasses and conjured a walking-stick and then, they left the restroom, Lupin pretending to be blind. They walked across the platform until they suddenly turned on their heels in front of a wall and crossed through it. It was a barrier. There was something that resembled an upright escalator. There was also a sign in which there was the inscriptions: _Down: Shadow Cross Station. Up: Wizardry Shop._ Lupin put away the stick and the glasses (wizards were way much more liberal about allowing animals at the subway) and said to the escalator, "Down!"

And the escalator inclined downstairs, heading them to a huge round station, Iwhich there was over twenty platforms and subways to everywhere in the world.

One could read on a sign "World-Wide Underground – Shadow Cross Station – London – UK".

In each platform, there was a different subway, and it subway transported people to different places in the world. In each platform, there was a flag from the country and the terminal station's name. "Le Possion Noire – Paris – France", "Liberty Owl – New York – USA", "Toca dos Sacis – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil". There were platforms for many countries, the farthest and the nearest. Lupin bought two tickets "London – St. Petersburg- London" for him and for Sirius (wizards were liberal about pets, but there was a price for it) and they embarked bounding for "Rhussian Rhapysodia" station, whose platform was placed next to the platform that bounded for Japan.

About half an hour later, they arrived at the Russian station. Lupin said something in Russian to the escalator, and it drove them upstairs. There were many shops full of magical artifacts and they headed towards s Potion Shop.

At the counter, two very warmly-dressed wizards, whose beards reached their waists, were waiting for clients. The shortest was as tall as Professor Flitwick, and the tallest was almost as tall as Hagrid.

The shortest saluted Lupin cheerfully, "Lupin! Volfsbane Potion, right?"

"Hello, Nicolay! Good morning, Djimitry."

"Humpf," said the tallest wizard. Nicolay whispered to Lupin, "Djimitry is ill-humored today. He lost money in a bet."

While the wizard was putting Lupin's potion in a vial, he and Lupin started a conversation that was making Sirius bored. He turned around and caught a glimpse of movement. Suddenly, he smelled somebody and yelped at Lupin, who was currently waiting for the change of the three galleons he gave for his potion. Lupin looked at him blankly and Sirius darted, dragging downstairs his friend who was hanging in the collar.

A calm but annoyed Lupin said, "Whatever it is, Padfoot, you're going there later to get my change."

Sirius dragged him again, following the track of a tall hooded wizard who was wearing a fuzzy coat and entering the subway that headed to New York. Before the subway went away, the wizard took off his hood and Lupin could see what Sirius wanted to show him: seated on a chair inside that subway, there was the renegade Death Eater, Igor Karkaroff, who was supposed to be hidden at London's subway giving Wormtail support.

Lupin decided they had to go immediately to London, forgetting completely about his change of money. Luckily, he would reach Dumbledore and tell him that, if there was a Death Eater encountering Wormtail, it sure was not Karkaroff. As they arrived at London, they quickly entered a restroom, where an anxious Sirius Black turned quickly into his human form.

"If it isn't Karkaroffwho's meeting Wormtail, then there must be another Death Eater involved. Different from all the others we know of. Probably a neophyte like that Quirrell-guy!"

"Sirius, I think it's better to leave you at the room in which I'm living here at London, in a Muggle neighborhood, where you can remain reasonably incognito. While you are there, I'll look for Dumbledore."

"He may be at the Ministry today. Sheeba forebode this yesterday."

"Great. He didn't say in our conference yesterday where would he go today. Let's postpone the plan for today. I hope we discover who the hell is this Death Eater until tomorrow's night… you know then I'll be useless. Full moon."

They left the restroom, Sirius was already in his human form, and they tried to be discreet as they cast a Memory Charm at a security guard from the station, who could swear that that guy was blind and the other, the tallest one, had come from nowhere.

They got into the normal subway heading to East End station, where they got off and Lupin headed Sirius to the den where he had rented his room.

A fat Muggle, who was reading a newspaper, handed Lupin his key and muttered as they turned around , "**_Gays_**!"

"What did you say?" Sirius turned around and growled, wearing his most canine face, threatening.

"Nothing, I didn't say anything."

They went upstairs and entered a dirty and musty room in which there were two beds.

"Great," exclaimed Sirius, falling heavily on one of the beds and kicking his boots aside, "Back to the cave full of fleas!"

"What?"

"Nothing really important, Moony… but… what does 'gay' mean?"

"To the safety of that guy downstairs, I'd better not tell you…"

_ _

_To be continued…_


	8. 8 - The Visit

CHAPTER 8 – THE VISIT

CHAPTER 8 – THE VISIT

Harry, Ron and Hermione were present at another boring History of Magic class with Professor Binns. Harry made an effort to pay attention on the gargoyles' extinction episode that the teacher was talking about; of how the gargoyles, stoned magical creatures, had turned so unbearable at the 1000s that they had been fenced in a cave that was lost under the place that now was called London. After a ruthless wrestling, at the edge of a precipice in the cave which was known as "Gargoyles' Flaw", the gargoyles were massacred and reduced to dust. The few remaining gargoyles were subdued, paralyzed and distributed around the world. Most of them were now at the churches. "But one of them keeps Dumbledore's office," thought Harry.

Madam Pomfrey showed up to notify the Divination students that they would have their afternoon period free, since Professor Trelawney was ill and could not teach at the moment. Then, she told Harry he had a visitor awaiting for him at the Great Hall.

When the class was over, Harry went downstairs along with Ron and Hermione to find out who was waiting for him. It was Sheeba and Harry noticed she was not wearing her gloves.

"Harry!," she said cheerfully, kissing Harry on the cheek (it was way better than the kissed his cousin Dudley Dursley got from his chubby godmother, of course, but that made him deeply embarrassed). Sheeba utilized the kiss to whisper, "Don't be afraid, Harry, I'm here because of my job."

At this time, dull-looking Ron and Hermione were staring at her blankly, "Hey, kids! How are you? I'll lunch with you, can I?"

"At Gryffindor's table?" Hermione made a harsh face.

"Why not? I'm a privileged ex-student! Hello, Minerva!" she said to Professor McGonagall, who walked past them.

"Sheeba," said a familiar voice and Harry, Ron and Hermione turned around just to see Professor Snape's strangely flabbergasted face.

"Hallo, Severus!" every student from Slytherin who followed him passed before them stretching out their necks to know who that woman was and muttering a lot.

"Are you going to sit with us at the staff table?" Snape wore the most cretin face Harry had ever thought he could manage to wear.

"Oh, no. I'll sit with my godson. You know him, don't you? Harry Potter!"

"Oh, yes, of course," Snape was deeply embarrassed, mainly when Harry smiled sweetly and innocently at him.

"He's an excellent student, isn't him, Severus? And so are his friends Ron and Hermione. She's the cleverest girl I've ever met… do you know anybody who's cleverer than her?"

"Well, no… I mean, they're all very hard-working…"

"Oh, that's so nice of "Thank you to recognize this! I'll see you later!"

Sheeba stretched each of her hands to Harry and Ron and walked towards Gryffindor's table, leaving behind an astonished Severus Snape (who was wondering what he had done wrong). Half way to where they were intending to go, Sheeba embraced Rubeus Hagrid tightly, and he practically threw her to the ceiling as he said, "Girl! Where have you been?"

"I've been around here, Hagrid. I see you're still raising nasty monsters as if they were little rabbits, aren't you?"

He grinned, "Well, you should be a teacher here."

"Maybe when the current Divination teacher retire?"

No matter how much Hermione tried to dislike Sheeba, she could not help but liked her. What she had just done with Snape had cleansed her soul, who had already been called an "irritable know-it-all" by the teacher more than once. Among the Gryffindors, Sheeba definitely did not resemble a grown-up, nor did she resemble a woman who worked for the Ministry's Police. In less than five minutes of chatting, it seemed she was a student like the others… Ron, who was at her left, kept treating Sheeba as if she was a _Veela_, and Harry, well, after the initial embarrassment, he was feeling home next to his godmother, mainly when he looked at Slytherin's table and saw Draco Malfoy's fool face. In a moment, Sheeba whispered just to him and Hermione (who was at Harry's right), "Don't be duped, this isn't an usual visit, I'm touching everybody and everything to know who has a Confusion Charm."

When they had finished lunching, Harry and Ron took advantage of the free time (Hermione had Arithmancy) to pick up their broomsticks and practice Quidditch. Harry was trying to teach Ron so then he would be able to play keeper, since the last one to play this position, Oliver Wood, had already graduated from Hogwarts. Actually, the two boys wanted to show off for Sheeba. When Harry went upstairs to pick up his Firebolt, he had an idea and put on the garment Sheeba had given him. In a couple of minutes, he was at Quidditch's pitch, on his Firebolt, making loopings.

Ron was using Fred's broomstick. Some other students helped them; two playing Beaters, and another one helping Ron at his position.

Harry approached Sheeba and asked, "Would it be very dishonest to use this garment to play Quidditch?"

"I wouldn't do it if I were you…"

"Why not?"

"I cast some spells on this garment, so then it would only be used to honest purposes, but if you really want to try…"

"Okay," Harry went very high on his broomstick and asked somebody to throw a Bludger on him. The Bludger came very quickly. Harry thought it was just going to touch him and change its way, however it just knocked him down the broomstick. It is true it was just like being hit by a foam ball, he did not feel pain, but Harry simply started falling. All the boys at the Quidditch Pitch shouted as they saw Harry broke off from his broomstick. Sheeba just raised her wand and said, in an impressively calm tone, "_Accio_!"

Nothing happened with Harry, who was still falling, but his Firebolt, that was nearly disappearing from sight, came into her direction. Harry thought he would break all his bones, however, a second before he hit the floor, he shook in the air as if he were hanging in a bungee jump's elastic. He hung in the air for some more moments, and then, he fell on the floor with a "bang". Everybody ran after him, expect Sheeba, who came walking calmly, holding his broomstick in her right hand. Harry had already lifted up when she handed him his Firebolt and asked, "Did it hurt?"

"Nope… but the Bludger knocked me down anyway."

"This will make you understand that this garment is perfectly useful for letting you stay safe and sound, but it won't ever help you win a Quidditch Match. Use your skills instead…"

Harry rolled his eyes grimly as he saw three figures walking across the pitch. As usual, Draco Malfoy and his bodyguards were laughing, ready to take advantage of what, unfortunately, they had already witnessed. "It seems you've just done bad to your godmother… shame on you!" Draco begun in his habitual drawl.

"Not exactly," said Sheeba, who was grinning from ear to ear, "I was teaching Harry how to fall from his broomstick without getting hurt, and it seems he learned it very well… If you want to try too…," Draco stepped back; his notable cowardice was visible on his face. Sheeba looked at him with her big brown eyes, and then, looked at Crabbe, getting closer to him and touching the tip of his nose… he was way taller than her.

"This wardrobe is a Crabbe! You inherited the elephant shape and worm brain from your family… should I tell you that your destiny is working as an old broomsticks repairer?" she turned around to face Goyle, who did not lose to Crabbe in the height query and was currently laughing, "What are you laughing about, Goyle?" she said as she touched the boy's chest, "Dearest gorilla, you're the same kind of almost-squib as your father were… poor you…I think that working as a latrine cleaner is indeed a very bad destiny…"

Draco was glaring at Sheeba in disdain when she smiled and approached him. Differently from Crabbe and Goyle, Malfoy was almost as short as Sheeba, and she got so close to him that she almost leaned on his nose. She twinkled at him, what nearly made him jump… then, she ran a finger across his face, from his forehead to his chin, touching his lips (it visibly disturbed him). She started, "Draco Malfoy, the son of Lucius and Narcissa… they're still conceited, snobbish, intolerable and mediocre as they were when I met them at school… hum… it seems your father hasn't solved the problem all the Malfoys have that gives sexual impotence to all the man in your family at the age of thirty, but you're not going to live enough to care about it, therefore, don't give a darn to it, okay? But if I were you," she almost whispered this bit, "I wouldn't get any closer to the Whomping Willow… at least not while you're like this… you know, a virgin…"

"What kind of madwoman is your godmother, Potter?" Draco was as red as a tomato, all the boys around him, including Crabbe and Goyle, were rolling over with laughter.

"She's a clairvoyant," said Harry as soon as he could manage to stop laughing, "she has the Touch of Prometheus."

"I don't believe those things…"

"If I were you, I would," added Ron, "she's one of the good ones, she's never made a wrong foreboding," faster than a Bludger, Draco and his bodyguards left the pitch.

Ron was on the fall, nearly crying of laughter. Sheeba said to Harry, "You owe me… now I'll meet Hermione at the library, I'll see you before I go home."

"Hermione may be at Arithmancy class," said Harry.

"No, she isn't. Her class ended earlier…" Sheeba shouted from a good distance away; she was nearly entering the castle.

"Seriously," said Ron, who was wiping off his tears of laughter, "wouldn't it be amusing to see Malfoy lacking in sexual power at the age of thirty? Pity it may be just a joke."

"It might be not," said Harry, "Did you notice she wasn't wearing her gloves?"

To be continued… 


	9. 9- The eye of the tiger

CHAPTER 9 – THE EYE OF THE TIGER

CHAPTER 9 – THE EYE OF THE TIGER

Hermione was at the library, standing behind a closed book: "IDENTIFYING PREMONITORY GIFTS", that she finally managed to find there. Something made her not wish even a bit to open it… at this moment, something she was already expecting happened. Sheeba entered the library and sat opposite to her at her table. "Hello, Hermione."

"Er… hi, Sheeba."

"I think, and it isn't a foreboding, that you have a silly jealousy of me."

"Jealousy? No, I…"

"You don't know if you like me or not, isn't it?"

"Actually, I like you, but you disturb me… ever since you arrived here, you're doing your best to touch the greater number of people and discover something about who cast that spell at Harry…"

"Even though you think it's strange, since whoever cast this spell won't let me touch him or her without an identical Confusion Spell. And you are right. I didn't come here just for this."

"Didn't you?"

"Nope. I've come here to give you this," Sheeba took of her wrist a jewel, which had two huge yellow gems with a black center, that resembled eyes, and those gems were joined by two rows of thick silver chains. Sheeba separated those eyes and now she had in her hands two identical bracelets. She put one of them her the top of her own wrist, and put the other on Hermione's wrists (the eye was turned to the inferior part of her forearm), "Look into the gem, Hermione."

Hermione looked at the gem, fascinated… she saw herself, but from another angle… Sheeba was at the first level, as if she could only see what the gem could reflect.

"Using this jewel, Hermione, you'll always know where I am and what I am doing. When my reflection isn't visible, it will be because I'm doing something that doesn't concern on you, and I turned off my gem. To turn off your own gem, you just need to turn it like this," Sheeba turned it to the mounting's right, "and then, I won't be able to see you."

"Why are you giving me this? Harry is your godson, shouldn't you give this jewel to him?"

"I could say that I'm not giving it to him because he already has many things to worry about, what isn't a lie. Or maybe, I'm doing this because I want to conquer your friendship, what's true too… or that I'm giving this jewel to you because you're a girl, and girls get mature before boys do… you aren't a little girl anymore, are you? But actually, Hermione, I choose you to give this gem as I received it from Viviane Lake when I was exactly your age because I know you were the first one to realize Sirius wasn't guilty, as you looked at him, even though you were struggling against what your sense was telling you. Do you remember you were the first one to notice that Sybil Trelawney was a faker?… when Harry got that Firebolt for his birthday, you knew it was from Sirius, and you also saw in Lupin's eyes that he was hiding something, and you found out what it was… people say you're clever… and you are. But you know there's something else, don't you? When you look into one's eyes, you know, and you're exactly in the age when this gift grow up…"

Hermione looked into Sheeba's eyes and realized. Looking serious, she awaited for Sheeba to say what she already knew, "Hermione, you're a _Truth Sniffer_."

Hermione glared at Sheeba with big brown eyes. The worse thing was that, everything made so much sense, it was not just intelligence. Hermione really knew she had the gift.

"Sheeba, what about when I thought Professor Snape was trying to kill Harry?"

"Actually, you still didn't know how to use this gift, but you knew Snape was trying to hide something, didn't you?"

"I think I knew, but… now I don't know what to do about it."

"Hermione, I'm at Hogwarts to tell you what you'll do about this gift. I'll be your mentor."

"Are you going to teach here?"

"Actually not. You're going to have particular classes with me. Your gift isn't like mine. In a few time, I believe it'll be totally developed, and then you'll be ready. For now, I want to ask you something: open this book that is just in front of you. Search for the chapter 'Seers by Categories', and then, go to 'Sniffers', letter 'G'".

Hermione shrieked. 'Granger, Hermione', her name, had just sprung up on the book.

"Since I'm going to give you some lessons, I need to give you my home's key," said Sheeba, handing Hermione an identical key as the one she had, "All the Saturdays, at half past eight, whirl this key at the lock, and you'll be transported. Obviously, you have to leave Hogwarts to do this, you've read 'Hogwarts, a history', and you know you can't leave this school using an artifact such as this one. Ask Hagrid to escort you out of the grounds, okay? I've already talked to him, and when it's time for you to go back, he'll be waiting for you. We can start this weekend. Now, let's get out of here. I need to meet Harry."

"Have you read 'Hogwarts, a history' too, Sheeba?"

"Yep, I have. Ron has too, but he pretends he hasn't just to annoys you."

"I'd like to know why does he do those things…"

"Are you sure you don't know, Hermione?"

They went quickly downstairs to meet Ron and Harry, who were going upstairs to the library.

"Harry, we need to talk," Sheeba was serious now, as Sirius always was when he needed to say something important, "Hermione and Ron, you may come too. Let's go to that empty room there."

They entered a room at the Great Hall's left side. Sheeba started telling them what she had just found out, "Some students are under Confusion Spells, as one could have expected: Crabbe, Goyle, Malfoy…"

"So Malfoy won't be impotent at the age of thirty?," Ron looked disappointed, Sheeba laughed and went on, "So are some people from the staff who I really didn't expect to do it, did it: McGonagall, Sprout, Madam Pomfrey… and even Hagrid! I guess nobody here really trusts on me…"

"What about Snape?" asked Harry.

"He's also under the spell. I honestly didn't expect it from him. I think he's going to London, that's the only thing I could perceive…"

"So it was him the one who was at the Pensieve!" Hermione pointed out.

"I don't know. I'll tell my bosses that the investigation isn't accomplished. Meanwhile, stay here and keep watching… just one more thing… Harry, where do you cut your hair?"

"Here at Hogwarts, Madam Pomfrey does it. Why?"

"Do you know where your hair goes after it's cut?"

"To the waste bin, I guess."

"Ron, Hermione… have you been cutting your hairs here?"

"Well, it's been more than two months since I last cut my hair… it doesn't grow as Harry's does… what about you, Hermione?"

"I want my hair longer, so it's been a while since I last cut it. What's the matter with haircuts, Sheeba?"

"That's what need to be watched: to prepare a Confusion Spell, one needs a lock of hair, not just a strand, like in a Polyjuice Potion."

"This makes Madam Pomfrey our suspect number one," said Ron, "How's a Confusion Spell prepared, Sheeba?"

"Do you remember when I said it has some durability? The Spell basically consists in freezing a lock of hair into a special potion. This ice isn't like normal ice; it takes much longer to defrost, and depending on the size of the spell, it can take even ten years, in atmosphere temperature. When the ice finishes melting, the Spell is over."

"If it's like you're saying, where's the Spell with my hair?"

"It can be anywhere, but I believe it's here, Harry. I'm going home, anything you want, just ask Hermione; she knows where to find me, okay?"

Harry and Ron looked suspiciously at Hermione, who looked back in a new way.

When they bade farewell to Sheeba at the Great Hall, she kissed the trio on the cheek, and, at the very moment she was kissing Harry, Cho Chang passed before them, and Harry noticed grimly that she was the only girl at Hogwarts who did not take notice of Sheeba's presence.

"Take care, and don't get into trouble!"

"You aren't the best person to give this sort of advice, Sheeba," said Hermione without noticing.

Sheeba grinned and turned on her heels to go, her cloak flitted behind her shadow. A group of Slytherins afforded her passage the moment she passed past them.

"Well," said Harry, "I guess Malfoy has already talked about her to his mates at Slytherin… let's wave goodbye to my godmother's good popularity…"

"What a woman," said Ron, just in time to be shoved by Hermione.

When Sheeba arrived at the castle's gateway, she met Albus Dumbledore, who had just arrived from London. Harry, Ron and Hermione watched from afar as he and Sheeba talked for a couple of minutes, and then, as Sheeba ran hastily towards somewhere out of Hogwarts.

_ _

_To be continued…_


	10. 10 - The Green Door

CHAPTER 10 – THE GREEN DOOR

Sirius was laying in the middle of darkness, awaiting for Remus Lupin. He had spent the whole day thinking about what have happened to his life after he was betrayed by Wormtail; about the time he spent in Azkaban and mainly in what he would do after his name got cleared. When he ran away from prison, his only thought was to prove he was innocent after all, he had not thought of the future yet. Now Sheeba was back, and so were zillions of thoughts and feelings that were hidden, or stuck in the bottom of his soul. It was her existence that made him think about the future and made him feel the urge to rebuild his life. If Dumbledore, Remus or anybody had told him he could not enter that subterranean cave the next day, he probably would not listen to this person and would enter anyway.

At this very moment, Remus arrived and switched on the room's light. His face showed despondency, as it always happened when the full moon was coming (and it was coming the next day). "Sirius, do you know what's electricity?"

"No, but I don't like," Sirius said as he put his hands on his face, "lights that turn on out of the blue without notice."

"Bad news. They didn't let me talk to Dumbledore. What if we let to do this all after the full moon?"

"And lose Wormtail? No way. We've got to catch him tomorrow, Moony."

"Padfoot, it may be a snare."

"Send an owl to Dumbledore saying 'we're gonna get in', well now."

"Warn Sheeba, then."

"No. She's never needed warning."

"Sirius, you're doing exactly what you need to lose a woman…" said Lupin, and Sirius jumped out of the bed.

"If I warn her, she'll find a way to prevent me from entering that damned cave. The more days I spend out of there, the more days I lose from my life… you don't know that, Moony. You aren't a 'dangerous criminal' who has to walk around hidden and seeing Dementors everywhere. Either I get in there and catch Wormtail or else I die clearing my name. And this is what I'm going to do, with or without you and Dumbledore."

"Okay, Padfoot, I'll go there with you tomorrow. But you'll promise me you're going to warn Sheeba now about what you're going to do."

"You don't need to say it, Remus, I already know," Sheeba had just Apparated just behind him.

"I told you she doesn't need notification," said Sirius grimly, turning his back to Sheeba, who did not even notice.

"Remus, Sirius, I've been at Hogwarts the whole day; things aren't at all good there. More than half the students are under a Confusion Spell. I've just told this to Dumbledore and he gave me an idea about what might be happening."

"What?" Sirius was avoiding to look at her.

"Somebody may be trying to do a forbidden spell there. I've made a little survey: every student who had a haircut there is under a Confusion Spell. Dumbledore will reinforce the security and also asked for reinforcement to the Ministry's Police."

"Where have Dumbledore been the whole day?" asked an irritated Sirius, without looking at her.

"He was solving an important matter. Something he's trying for a good deal of time and hadn't succeeded yet…"

"And what are you going to do?"

"I'll be at Hogwarts with the Police. Mad-Eye Moody's going to arrive tomorrow and then, things will get calmer. We'll make a conspiracy against forbidden spells, and after it's done, we believe that every Confusion Spell made at Hogwarts will disappear. The situation is so complicated that Sybil Trelawney was taken to St. Mungo's Hospital last night."

"What happened to her?" asked Lupin.

"Actually, I think she had a 'Blow of the Norns' and didn't withstand. Although I don't believe a word of anything she night predict, nobody had ever seen Sybil Trelawney such as mad as she was yesterday before. The students don't know this yet. She's been taken to the hospital in the middle of a delirium in the daybreak. It's the badness in being a charlatan: eventually they feel the weight of their responsibility. Now I need to go back to Hogsmeade."

"And won't you kiss me goodbye?"

"No, Sirius. You started with this, therefore you'll end with this also," said Sheeba before Disapparating.

"Don't say a word, Moony," Sirius added, ill-humored.

Miles away, at Hogwarts, Hermione had just watched to this dialogue.

**

The next day, Sirius and Lupin Disapparated in a forsaken tube.

"Now," said Sirius, "we just need to follow the smell of rat," he turned quickly into a huge dog, scenting, looking for Wormtail's sour smell, which he could recognize from miles away. Sirius could feel his smell, and knew he was somewhere nearby, but he was very good in terms of hiding.

They walked more than two miles and Sirius could still feel Peter Pettigrew's smell. There was a crumbling in the middle of a tube, however they did not have any difficulty in recognizing it was a barrier.

Sirius, in his canine form, jumped through it. Lupin followed him, and just after the barrier, they had the first clue: there was a lateral yanked door into which there was more stairs that headed to a deeper somewhere.

This door was under a Beheading Spell that Lupin took some hours trying to decipher. When he finally managed to do it, he looked at his watch: midday.

 "Sirius, I'm leaving this door with a Disarm Spell. If we reach Wormtail, I don't want the Ministry's Police or the Aurors to have difficulties to get in here. We've got to be quick; it's a race against time."

At that moment, at Hogwarts, Dumbledore was telling the students very seriously that they were not going to have classes that afternoon due to the forbidden spell cleaning that was going to take place there. He also forewarned that anybody who did not want to have a spoiled spell would have half an hour to register it. Hermione reminded Harry that he would have to communicate about the robe his godmother gave him, since it was not registered yet, and so would she need to tell the staff about the jewel Sheeba gave her. At the front of the table where Professor McGonagall was registering the spells, a row of students started to take shape.

Mad-Eye Moody was going to guide the work. Next to the main table, Sheeba held anxiously something in her pocket. It was an abject she had taken from Sirius the day before; a button. She was holding it tightly and muttering, "Quick, Sirius, quick…" She could not pay attention to anything that happened in the Great Hall.

Meanwhile, at London, Lupin and Sirius (who had turned into a man again) were going downstairs a flight of stairs that seemed to plunge into darkness. Every time, they passed through many trap hexes that they avoided by the use of Stunning and Ejection Spells.

At Hogwarts, Mad-Eye Moody was starting the ritual, bawling rather antique words and holding a wand in each hand. At his front, there was a spluttering cauldron that cast violet smoke in the air. Moody dove the wands into the cauldron and the smoke was divided into rosy and bluish spectrums. Each one of them turned into a huge horse that looked like a ghost and the couple galloped in the air to opposite directions. As they did it, the sound of many spells exploding and snapping and disarming was heard… love charms from fifth year girls, joke curses like Fred and George's, naughtiness, etc.

At Hagrid's cabin, a teapot, into which he was keeping something he made to give to Madam Olympe Maxime (he was officially forbidden of doing magic) exploded; a quill bewitched with cheats for the Transfiguration Test exploded in Draco Malfoy's bag.

When one of the  horses disappeared heading to the second floor, an immense explosion agitated Hogwarts and everything was just panic. Snape ran towards where the sound was heard as a flock of house-elves entered the Great Hall yelling and saying that the kitchens were getting flooded. Sheeba ran towards the kitchens just in time to see the ceiling crumbling down and, inside it, the biggest Confusion Ice – formed by a multicolored ball of yarn which was actually many people's hairs entangled - she had ever seen was melting. When it finally turned into a liquid, she left the kitchens.

Sheeba returned quickly to the Great Hall to touch Harry. When she touched him, nothing happened. The ritual was getting finished and he was still under the Confusion Spell. She met Dumbledore's apprehensive eyes and said, "His Spell isn't here. Somebody stole it."

Then, she noticed that Snape had disappeared from the staff table.

At this moment, Sirius and Lupin bumped into a door that headed to two corridors, one at left, the other at its right. They decided to go to opposite directions; Sirius went to left and Lupin went to right. As Sirius rushed on the corridor, he noticed that it changed harshly its direction, as if it was a maze ("I hate mazes," he thought). He bumped into a yellow door the very moment he walked to the next curve. He opened it carefully, without getting in. He looked into it and ducked just in time to avoid a fireball that a kind of pixie had just spat at him. He closed the door quickly and decided to go forward. He walked a little bit more and saw a second door, this time it was red. He smelled what might be behind it, opened it even more carefully and saw a big troll. Then, he conjured strong ropes and bound the creature, just to verify that this room did not have another exit but the door in which he got in. He left the room and walked in the corridor again. When he saw an orange door, something popped into his mind and he ran far away from it and back all the distance he had already passed through. At Hogwarts, Sheeba repeated, "quick, Sirius, quick". At the end of the other corridor, Remus Lupin had just seen a green door.

To be continued…


	11. 11- Snape Disappears

CHAPTER 11 – Snape disappears

Sheeba asked Dumbledore where Snape had gone and the answer was that Snape had been to the second floor to extinguish the spell. Sheeba ran and took notice that the spell had been extinguished, however Snape had disappeared. Harry, who had been following her, ran as fast as he could towards the Gryffindor Tower, passing before the Fat Lady quickly and going upstairs to his room. He opened his trunk breathlessly and took off from it the Marauder's Map and activated it quickly. He looked for Severus Snape in the map and found him just a second before the teacher vanished. Snape had left Hogwarts by the passageway near the Whomping Willow.

Harry went downstairs quickly, holding the map, and ran directly at Sheeba, whom he explained to what he had seen just in an awkward way. Somebody laid a hand on his shoulder and he turned around to face Albus Dumbledore. "Harry, come with me to my office. Sheeba, try to find Snape, will you?"

Deja vú. As Harry sat on a chair at Dumbledore's office, he already knew what was going to be said. He had seen part of this scene two days before, on Sheeba's Pensieve.

"You already know you're not allowed to leave Hogwarts for anything in the world, don't you? On no account I want you trying to play hero, Harry. I'm already risking Sirius and Remus's lives, since they're going after Pettigrew under great personal risk and I don't want you thinking of waysto get out of this school and go to find what's happening. Last year, you almost got killed. Now that Voldemort's back, you're only protected under my vigillance. Understood?"

"I know it, Headmaster. Two days ago, at Sheeba's home, she showed me exactly this scene in her Pensieve."

"I understand, but I want to make it clear for you, Harry, that you need to stay safe here, away from trouble. Okay?"

"Okay."

At this moment, somebody knocked the door and Dumbledore asked this person to step in. Mad-Eye Moody's deformed face showed up in the gap between the door and the wall and greeted the two of them. Moody told them a student had disappeared. Dumbledore asked who it was and the answer made Harry's heart beat twice as fast as usual, "Cho Chang."

**

Sheeba was running through the passageway near the Whomping Willow holding Sirius's button tightly with her a hand, and holding a wand, whose tip was enlightening her way, with the other She kept repeating mentally, "Please, Sirius, stop him."

**

Sirius was running in his canine form across the places where Lupin had been. He passed past a blue door with the faintest will to check what was there behind it, and then he saw a yellow door, and ran even faster, his feet getting heavier and heavier agaisnt the floor. He saw Lupin in the end of the corridor, just in front of the green door, holding the handle. Sirius barked out loud, astonishing his friend. Then, he jumped onto Lupin, changing into his human form before he knocked Lupin down.

"Could you please tell me why you attacked me, Sirius?"

"Don't get in there. It's a trap for you."

"Who told you that?"

"Sheeba did, yesterday. She told me that if you get in this room, you'll die. Do you want to  confer she was right?"

"I honestly don't have any reasons to doubt a word from her, but I don't think it's cautious for you to enter this room alone."

"And what do you expect me to do?"

"Try to Disapparate and find Sheeba and Dumbledore."

"I guess it's impossible to Disapparate here. This is a real fortress, it wouldn't be vulnerable to something so simple."

"Even though this place was plotted by Wormtail, I've got to admit he knows how to make a wizard lose time."

"I'll get in, you get away. Find Sheeba."

**

At Hogwarts, surrounded by Ron and Hermione, Harry felt butterflies in his stomach. If somebody wanted to make him sad, this person succeeded. They could have gotten him, but why Cho? She was not even in love with him, Harry knew that, she still loved Cedric Diggory, even though it had been alomost a year since the object of her affection had died. Harry had noticed that the last time he saw her_. If she gets killed or hurt because of me, Harry thought, __I'll be the one who's getting mad and going to St. Mungo's. _

"Do you think Snape dragged Cho Chang with him?" asked Ron while he looked aprehensively at Harry.

"He left the castle alone, I saw it on the Map."

"Besides," added Hermione, "Snape's in our side."

"Hermione, do you remember Sheeba saying Snape had deceived her?"

"Ron, that was when she thought he had cast a Confusion Spell at himself."

"And what if he did, what if he's taken away Harry's Confusion Ice?"

"Ron, Hermione, we've got to do something. I think the only way out would be following Snape. He might have seen who's taken Cho and went behind this person, so when I looked at the Map, the person who kidnapped Cho was already outside the grounds."

"Harry," Ron started, "Do you remember Sheeba telling us she's seen something sbout Snape?"

"Oh, yes! She told us he was going to London!" said Hermione cheerfully.

"Great. He still don't know how to Disapparate and we're miles away from London, what makes us start from scratch," said an ill-humored Harry. Hermione was looking at the Eye of the Tiger and saw that at that very moment, Lupin was Apparating just in front of Sheeba.

"There's a way," she said, "I have a plan."

**

Sirius opened the door and stared. The room was completely dark. Suddenly, the lights got switched on  and made him go momentarily blind (Electric light?, he thought). As soon as he opened his eyes, he heard a blast and saw a man pointing a gun at him, shooting. He felt something very soft hit his shoulder and fall down, and just then he remembered what Sheeba said about the garment she lent him. That was a Muggle bullet. And the man kept shooting. Sirius crouched behind a desk and noticed that was a non-magical room. Actualy, it had all the characteristics of a Muggle room: there was even a telephone on the desk. Sirius looked at one of the bullets the man had shot at him and found out why Lupin could not enter this room: those were silver bullets. He stopped a moment to think about what he was going to do and looked at the Muggle by the gap in the desk. The man was obviously under a strong Imperius Curse. So, the wizard who cast this spell could not be so far... he could not do anything that might put this Muggle's life in danger., he did not want to have to be blamed by the Ministry for a death, and whoever made him get to that place knew it. He heard a voice, out of the blue, talk to the Muggle, "His head, you nitwit, aim at his head and don't miss the target!"

Sirius knew that voice. It belonged to Wormtail. He did not know if what he was going to do would work, but anyway, he remembered Sheeba told him he would get out of that place alive.

"_Expelliarmus!" he shouted and the gun the Muggle guy was holding flied away and stopped at Sirius's hand. _

He noticed the man was wearing policeman uniform and heard what Wormtail said next, "Moron! You'll pay for it! _Crucio!" the policeman started yelling in pain and Sirius thought Wormtail was hidden under an Invisibility Cloak. Suddenly, he notice what could help him: the ceiling was full of sprinklers. Without wasting anymore minutes, Sirius turned the gun into a Filisbuster Fire and threw it at the ceiling. It exploded and made the Sprinklers start spouting water everywhere, and he saw a place in the middle of the air where the water was dripping._

"_Impedimenta!" Sirius pointed at the shadow, but it opened a door behind itself and apparently escaped by a corridor. Before following it, Sirius made sure the Muggle policeman was going to be all right. There was water everywhere and Sirius improvised a spell to stop the sprinklers. It was almost nonsense their being there... the door at the subterranean passage may have been a doorway that headed to another room, in some Muggle building. He left by the same door as Wormtail and noticed he was exactly stepping out of the orange door at the maze. Doubtlessly, it was a Muggle building and now he was leaving again by another doorway. __Everything's just here to confuse people, he thought. Minus two doors. One of them may head ahead. He decided entering the pixie's room. He opened the door carefully and shouted, poiting at the room, "__Impedimenta!"_

There was not anymore pixies in the room. Sirius's spell hit a mirror and almost hit him back. The room was full of mirrors, "It must be here," he thought.


	12. 12 - Rats!

CHAPTER 12 – RATS!

Harry, Ron and Hermione were trying to dissemble so then, they would not attract anybody's attention. Harry was hiding his Invisibility Cloak under his robes. They were at Gryffindor's common room trying to figure out what should they do to get out of the castle without being noticed. All the students had been absolutely prohibited to leave their Houses, what made them stuck in their common rooms, far away from the two passageways that could make it possible for them to run away. The sun was slowly setting behind the montains. Then, Hermione decided to put into practice her plan. She stood up from her armchair and futively hexed Neville's hot chocolate mug (_sorry, Neville, she thought,__ thank God you agreed). Immediately, the liquid in the mug exploded and Neville got all wet from hot chocolate (which Hermione wisely chilled so then it would do not Neville any harm)._

Professor McGonagall promptly showed up, "But what...? Longbottom, how can you possibly destroy so many things? Come with me, I'll take you to the Hospital Wing, so Madam Pomfrey will make sure you didn't get hurt."

Quickly, Harry, who had hid himself under his Invisibility Cloak, while everybody were scared at Neville, followed them, passing through the portrait hole. Moments later, he saw the teacher walk back to her office, then he waited for Neville to go back. About ten minutes later, Neville passed before Harry, who thanked him in a whisper, and opened the portrait hole again. Hermione and Ron left just in time for Harry to cast the cloak on them and prevent the Fat Lady from noticing they had gone out.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Ron, "Which passageway will we use?"

"Whopping Willow's seems the best," said Harry, "there might be a teacher or Filch around the other passageway. Thanks for casting your loveliness at Neville to make him accept helping, Hermione..."

"Let's go, Harry."

Step by step, they left the castle under James Potter's Invisibility Cloak, as they had done many times before (_deja vú, thought Harry again). They passed before Hagrid, who was guarding the castle from outside and got slowly near the Whopping Willow, not without searching for a branch (which had to be long enough for activating the willow's knot and make it stop) before. Ron took one of his arms off the cloak and stretched it out, holding the branch, until he could touch the knot. The willow stopped shaking and the three of them entered quickly through the passageway. As they got rid of the cloak, they ran as fast as they could until they reached the Shrieking Shack._

**

Sirius glared doubtful at the mirrors in the circular room. The door banged behind him and turned also into a mirror. Among the other magical artifacts he knew of, there were the magical mirrors, that were capable of disturbing desire, fears and frustrations, capable of confusing and maddening. He turned around to examine the room and found out there was not mirrors just on the walls, but also on the ceiling and floor. Whoever arranged this room had the intention of making every spell done in this place go back at who conjured them. _Think, Sirius, he thought... and found out he simply could not ratiocinate. He looked at one of the mirrors and got amazed at his own glare. But it was not him anymore._

He saw himself at the age of sixteen, dancing in a ball at Hogwarts with Sheeba. He turned around quickly and saw himself in another mirror, inside a cell at Azkaban, mad eyes facing him. He closed his eyes quickly (Think, Sirius). He opened them again and watched the day in which he found Wormtail in an alley. He closed his eyes again (Think! Think! THINK, DAMN!). Then, before he could break his train of thought, he turned into a dog. He opened his eyes again and noticed that all the mirrors were reflecting the same thing at once: a dog. Just then he managed to read an inscription that rounded the room: "EACH MIRROR IS A DOOR, EACH DOOR IS A MIRROR. THE RIGHT DOOR IS YOUR WORST CHOICE." He had to turn back into his human form.

Sirius looked up slowly to each mirror. Each one of them had a scene he remembered: a moment in his childhood when he got Hogwarts's letter, a moment in his teenage, with Sheeba, and other scenes. He looked to the scene in which he found Peter Pettigrew. Maybe that had been his worst choice ever, after all, that was what made him go to Azkaban... then he paid attention to another mirror, the one which showed a very beautiful afternoon, before Lily and James's deaths. He was sitting by the two of them, young Harry was on his lap, playing with his jacket's buttons... his head got enlighted and he ran at this mirror: that scene was the day when he talked Lily and James into accepting Peter Pettigrew as their Secret Keeper.

**

"All right, Hermione, what are we going to do now, since you do have a plan?" asked Ron inside the Shrieking Shack, at Hogsmeade.

Hermione took off Sheeba's home key from her bag and asked Ron and Harry to hold hands with her. She turned the key and in a moment, they were at Sheeba's home.

"Trespassers!" said the voice of Smiley, the house-elf, who was running towards them, fury playing in his big blue eyes.

"Smiley! It's me, Harry."

"Harry? Harry Potter? Oh, yes, forgive imbecile Smiley, Mr Harry Potter, sir. Smiley is a bad elf," Harry was already acquainted with this kind of imprecation; Dobby did this all the time, "Okay, what do you want, gentlemen and lady?" it added.

Harry and Ron looked at Hermione. After all, the plan was hers.

"Smiley," said Hermione, "We need you to show us where the garage is."

**

Sirius entered in a corridor with damp walls, just as Azkaban's. There were huge strings of black moss smelling like mildew. He could hardly discern anything right in front of his nose. "**_Lumos!"_**

Now he could see thousands of insects – cockroaches, earwigs and moths – walking across the enlighted walls. Sirius walked carefully ahead. The corridor headed uprights and he could not see anything that was in front of him. Suddenly, the floor sagged under his feet and he skidded for some minutes until he fell down onto a circular chamber, whose walls were made of stone. The place was really high and the walls were full of holes which were exactly equal to the one he fell by. The chamber was totally empty but for him, however, he could still feel Wormtail's nasty smell. An strangelly dark and cold fog was covering the floor.

A loud squeak echooed in the chamber. Sirius felt the floor quaking. Imediatelly, from the holes in the walls, hundreds, thousands, millions of dark and fat rats – some were the size of an adult man's forearm – started falling down. They quickly ran towards Sirius, who pointed his wand at the floor and shouted, "**_Aeros!"_****__**

Immediately he levitated about ten feet, and looked around to see where Wormtail's squeak, which was uselless since there were squeaks coming from everywhere, came from.

"**_Expelliarmus!" said a voice behind the shadows. Sirius's wand flied away from his grip and he fell from the air. He shook for a moment, since he was wearing Sheeba's magical garment, and then he fell on the floor on his back. Before he could do anything, hundreds of rats started covering him up. He could just see a man taking of an Invisibility Cloak somewhere in the room. Then, everything got dark._**


	13. 13 The Dogtorcycle

Chapter 13 – The Dogtorcycle

"Hermione, are you MAD? Do you really, really think we'll be able to get to London on Sirius's motorcycle?" asked Ron. 

He, Harry and Hermione were at Sheeba's home, standing in front of a frightened Smiley, who was definetely resolute not to open the garage for them, for he did not want at all to face the 'dogtorcycle', as himself called it.

"Ron, we don't have any other choice... if you think it's not going to work, we can go back to Hogwarts and leave everything up to Sheeba... look!" she showed them the 'Eye of the Tiger', in which there was an image of Sheeba running through a tube.

"How did she give you this?"

"She trusts on me."

"Oh, sure. And you're going to betray her trust by taking Sirius's motorcycle from here..."

"Hermione," Harry cut Ron off, "how will you be able to drive the motorcycle? Have you ever driven one?"

"No, but I've got a feeling."

"Marvelous. Harry, have you already breaken your neck? Hermione's inviting us to do it."

"Listen, the two of you. Come here," Hermione dragged them to a door in a corner and opened it, "I've seen Sheeba put him here earlier," by the gap, they could see inside the room a big wolf sleeping, "that's Professor Lupin. I guess he won't be able to help us out. Snape's missing and Dumbledore's at school. Who could try anything?"

"What about Cho?"

"I've got a feeling that when we solve everything, we'll find her too."

"Hermione, what's going on?" asked Ron suspiciously, "You've never had any feelings, forebodings and so..."

"Okay, I'll tell you. I'm a Sniffer."

"What? A Sniffer?" asked Harry and Ron simultaneously.

"Exactly. That's why Sheeba gave me an 'Eye of the Tiger' and..." Hermione glanced at the gem and noticed that the reflection had faden out, "God! The reflection has vanished. We need to hurry. Smiley, please, tell me how can we get to the garage."

"No! Dogtorcycle will kill the three of you. Smiley can't tell, it can't tell."

"Smiley," Hermione looked furious, "I own a key of your Mistress's house and I work with her. I'M DEMANDING!"

The house-elf looked down and said, "All right... Smiley's duty as a house-elf is to serve everybody who its mistress trusts on... take it, lady, garage's key, dogtorcycle's key, roof's key, chains' key..." there was about ten keys, each one of them opened a different padlock. He handed her the keys and hid himself under a table, very scared.

"Hermione, I'm amazed," said Ron teasingly, "As a girl who claims she loves house-elves, you were very harsh to Smiley."

 They got into the garage and the vehicle automatically made a noise as if its engines were speeding up. Harry had never seen a motorcycle that huge before. It was really enormous: big and black and silver. Now he understood why Hagrid used it to bring him to Privet Drive when he was a baby. It might be the only vehicle in the world that was proportionate to Hagrid's size. And listening to the roaring sound that came from the motorcycle, he thought that Hagrid would love to have such a vehicle.

"How can Sirius use such a thing?" asked Ron. As it listened the name of its owner, the motorcycle made a loud speeding noise, and this time Harry thought it sounded much like a bark. He looked at Hermione, who was walking around the motorcycle, staring seriously at its two enormous headlights. They switched on and Hermione shut her eyes closed; the vehicle seemed to have growled again.

"Hello," she said, "you're missing your keeper, aren't you?"

The motocycle sped up and perished various times.

"You also don't like to be chained, do you?"

The vehicle seemed to agree again.

"What about a ride?"

The motorcycle made noises that sounded like the bark of a very excited dog.

"How long do you take to take me to London?"

It honked twice.

"Two hours from here to London?" said Ron, "It can't be true."

The motorcycle started growling again and Hermione shot Ron an angry glance and mouthed, "Don't insult it!"

"See, these boys are Harry and Ron... we're going to set you free, but you have to be quiet, okay? I promise you that when we arrive at London, you'll be able to see Sirius," it made the motorcycle get really out of control. Harry could swear it was drooling.

While they were unlocking the chains that kept the vehicle linked to the floor, Harry asked "How did you know Sirius's motorcycle was a dog?"

"Actually, I thought it could find Sirius by itself. This kind of magical artifact usually is very attached to its owner. When Smiley called it a 'dogtorcycle', I thought I could try something, and used some of my Truth Sniffer skills to see what it wanted, and it wasn't very difficult. I used to have a dog, and when it was kept chained for a really long time, all it wanted was to run a lot."

Ron had just opened the roof. The motorcycle was seized by only a chain; the back tyre was about three feet away from the floor, running on wheels excitedly. Above them, the full moon was shining brightly in the sky. Something popped into Harry's mind and he asked the motorcycle, "Could you take us to Sirius? He's at London."

The vehicle made a deep and mighty roar that sounded like a 'yes'.

"Hold on!" shouted Harry. He unlocked the last padlock and the motorcycle darted as a bullet, upright, heading to the sky. They could not help but screamed. When they got really high (many clouds later), it sped up and turned right, as a jet. It flew above Hogsmeade, roaring very loud and heading to London.


	14. 14 As Hansel and Grethel

**CHAPTER 14 – AS HANSEL AND GRETEL **  
  
Sirius's conscience faded in very slowly. A roaring and moving substance reached his neck, and he sometimes felt something pinching him. He could hear noises and smell something disgusting and sour.   
  
Rats. Sirius opened his eyes and realized he was drowning in some sort of pool that was full of rats. The rats' weight prevented him from moving. He wasn't at the circular chamber anymore, but in a large, damp place that was illuminated by a weird reddish light. It was a large subterranean cave, as high as a cathedral.   
  
He heard a disgusting sort of laughter and saw Wormtail's shot and broad shadow, motionless at the edge of the hole.   
  
"Whoa, isn't it arrogant Mr. Sirius Unpleasant Black who fell into my trap for the second time?"   
  
"Peter... you're so different from the last time I saw you. If it's coming correctly back to my mind, you begged me not to kill you, then."   
  
"And things change, don't they, Sirius? The saddest thing is that you're gonna die as a turncoat. Not redeemed, dirty, forgotten and hated as an idle dog. Isn't it ironic? I, vile, mediocre Wormtail, am alive and own a repute that I don't deserve.... you, who was always so noble and full of admirers all over Hogwarts, is considered as loathsome as the worst of the murderers."   
  
"When I get out of here," said Sirius, "I won't repeat my mistakes... I hope your corpse will be enough to show everybody who the scoundrel were... to top it all off having this mark and this new arm. Is this a gift from your master?"   
  
"My master honours those who are loyal to him. Where is your dear mentor?"   
  
"Wormtail, I'd like to know... all these pomp isn't here just because of me, aren't I right? You have never been worried about it, you were always way much more worried about running away from me..."   
  
"Actually, what matters," said Wormtail, "are those little friends of mine who are keeping you company. They're the key."   
  
"You look so happy between your peers."   
  
"Sirius, those rats you despise are going to destroy London."   
  
"What?" asked Sirius mockingly, "Are they going to nibble at it until it falls?"   
  
"It's taken me a year to improve a perfect plague to kill Muggles. And I've put it on these rats. Each one of them is able to suck the vital energy of ten Muggles... I'll slacken them in London as soon as I get rid of you and I'll summon my master to see the destruction I'm going to arouse... but before it all, I'll catch Harry Potter. Pity you won't be here to see it, Sirius..."   
  
"I always thought Voldemort was the most insane guy ever and now I see you're worse than him..."   
  
"In some hours when my rats have sucked all your energy, your irony will no longer exist, Sirius."   
  
"I don't feel anything, you asshole. There must be something wrong about your rats."   
  
"Since wizards' energy are different from Muggles', the rats take more time to kill them. I shall give them a helping hand... _Cru_..." Wormtail couldn't finish the word, for a large white shape emerged from the shadows and jumped onto him. Before he could even think of how it could have happened, the paw of an enormous Siberian tiger was against his throat.   
  
The tiger turned into Sheeba, who was making pressure against his throat. In her right hand, her wand was just above Wormtail's chest, right on his heart.   
  
"Oh, Wormtail, you don't have a clue of how is it good to seize your neck and be aware that you have a Dementor's Kiss in your destiny..."   
  
"Er... Sheeba..." he gulped, "get off me, I didn't mean to..."   
  
"Oh, yeah, you meant it... you always wanted to screw up Sirius's life, didn't you? Jealous were you, as you always were jealous of James too, eh? You were jealous even of Remus... you would give anything to change places with him, be a werewolf, wouldn't you? You always wanted any kind of power, even if it was a curse."   
  
"Sheeba, be merciful, please."   
  
"How do I get Sirius out of that place?"   
  
"Be calm, I'll tell you."   
  
At this very moment, Sirius, who had been laughing until then, saw a hooded shape getting closer to Sheeba's back. It was the other Death Eater.   
  
"Sheeba, look behind you!"   
  
There wasn't enough time. Before Sheeba could do anything, the Death Eater disarmed her and took off his mask, revealing his face.   
  
The face of Severus Snape.   
  
  
  
**   
  
  
  
Harry, Ron and Hermione saw lights in the horizon. It was really cold up there. Ron felt reluctantly excited with the sensation of his body rubbing against Hermione's... Hermione, however, was trying not to take cognizance of the times she felt the shivers when Ron's breath lightly heated up her neck... Harry, who was in the driver's place, couldn't think of anything for much time... it had happened some times before... he was fighting against the idea of something bad happening to Cho Chang. He was afraid she was in much danger.   
  
The motorcycle was getting closer to London really quickly. The thought of getting in trouble if Muggle people saw them using the Dogtorcycle popped into Harry's mind and, with Hermione's help, he covered what could be covered with his Invisibility Cloak. It didn't get all hidden, but it was better than nothing. They passed before the Big Ben and could see what time it was: ten o'clock in the evening.   
  
"Right, can you smell Sirius?" Harry asked the vehicle.   
  
The motorcycle roared in response and dove, making Hermione close her eyes firmly and grasp Ron's arm, which passed past her waist until getting to Harry, tightly. Nothing prepared them to what came next: the motorcycle landed on a crowded street and sped up, running between the cars as a bullet, but it seemed they turned aside as it passed. Harry had already seen it somewhere else. Oh, yeah, it was like being at the Knightbus, but even faster. _Deja vù _again.   
  
The Dogtorcycle entered a subway station, apparently not caring that the stairs didn't fit motorcycles (7 feet motorcycles, no way)... they got surprised that nothing happened to the vehicle; everything just turned aside. "This definitely won't come out well," said a terrified Ron Weasley as the motorcycle entered a tunnel.   
  
But the Dogtorcycle uplifted and started rolling on just a wheel, for its passengers'despair; they were screaming, really afraid. When they could see lights in the end of the tunnel, their screams got even louder and sounded more terrified, and the fact that a moment before it would be impossible not to clash against the subway, the motorcycle entered a lateral tunnel that sprung up as it in magic, didn't make them feel much better, it continued rolling even faster until it skidded into a crumbling in the wall. The three of them fell onto the floor. Hermione fainted. Ron leaned out onto her, and she muttered, "I'm okay, but I think I'm going to throw up."   
  
"Only you?" said Ron, "Guess what Harry's doing this very moment?"   
  
After some minutes, they stood up and looked at the Dogtorcycle, who sped up and perished various times.   
  
"Okay then, you mongrel," said Ron, "You brought us to a blind alley."   
  
"It's not a blind alley," Hermione replied, "I saw Sheeba coming here, in the Eye of the Tiger... it's a barrier as Platform 9 ¾... after that, the image faded away."   
  
"So let's get in here now," said Harry as he ran towards the barrier and passed through it. Ron and Hermione did the same right next him.   
  
Hermione noticed that her own Eye of the Tiger also turned off on its own. When they got right in front of a door, there was a message: _Follow the Instructions._   
  
"Sheeba left this note, I guess," said Harry, "she probably knew we would come for them."   
  
They went downstairs and find similar notes that had things such as _Impedimenta_ written on them, and they repeated them and disarmed hexes that they sometimes they hadn't even seen. They got to the place with the two corridors very quickly. There was a note, in which:   
  
"FIRST GO RIGHT – ACT UNAFFECTEDLY INSIDE THE GREEN DOOR AND GET OUT BY THE CLOSET'S DOOR"   
  
"Great," said Ron cheerfully, "She left us instructions."   
  
"As it in Hansel and Gretel's story," said Harry, grinning.   
  
"What story?"   
  
"Never mind," said Harry, as he remembered that in Hansel and Gretel, the witch was evil.   
  
They got into the green door and there was a Muggle man cleaning the room.   
  
"Hey, you're going to ruin my cleaning! Isn't it enough that a madman left a bomb here this afternoon?"   
  
"It's all right," said Harry, "We just want to get into the closet."   
  
The man watched as they got into the closet and shook his head, "Hey, you cannot enter..." and he opened the door and realised the three teenagers had simply vanished.


	15. 15 The two Snapes

** Chapter 15 – The two Snapes**   
  
They left by the orange door, where there was a flying note: "GO TO THE YELLOW DOOR". They ran to the yellow door, and before entering it, they found another note: "LET HERMIONE MAKE THE CHOICE." And they finally got into the mirror room, where each one of them saw different images. Hermione looked at the inscription: "EACH DOOR IS A MIRROR, EACH MIRROR IS A DOOR. DO YOU KNOW YOURSELF? THE RIGHT CHOICE IS THE THING YOU'RE MOST AFRAID OF." She didn't know it, but just as the images, each one of them read a different sentence. Hermione tried to fight against the sensation of dizziness in her mind. Then, she saw just in front of herself, Professor McGonagall saying she wasn't good enough, that she had been reproved... it was the same thing she had seen two years before, when she faced a boggart... in a deeper reflection, she thought it wasn't the thing she was most afraid of now... she looked and saw herself between Harry and Ron, who were saying"You made the wrong choice, Hermione". She opened this door quickly, just in time to pull Ron (who had just been bewitched by a veela he had seen in the mirror) and Harry inside it with her.   
  
"Lumos," said the three of them at the same time (just after Harry brought Ron back to reality slapping him lightly on the face). The walls got lighted and Hermione screamed as she saw the amount of insects. Ron did the same as an enormous spider passed past his foot. A luminous note appeared just in front of them: "COUNT TEN TILES ON THE FLOOR AND SKIP THE ELEVENTH. KEEP AWAY FROM THE TRAP SIRIUS GOT INTO." They counted and jumped and another note emerged: "IF YOU GOT HERE, RUN." And so they did, and also heard something really big getting closer to them. A flying arrow pointed at a niche in the right, where the three of them jumped into and right after this, an enormous rock passed rolling. They were in the middle of a winding staircase, that headed both upstairs and downstairs. There wasn't any note.   
  
"Hey," said Ron, "do you think something happened to the note?"   
  
"Or to Sheeba," replied Harry, "What are we going to do now? The best thing we can do is to separate: the two of you go upstairs and I'll go downstairs."   
  
"No way, Harry," said Hermione, "There might be a trap both upstairs or downstairs. Let's go upstairs together, the three of us, and then we go downstairs."   
  
They climbed five loops of the stairs and were already running out of breath when they saw a massive door with a burdensome padlock.   
  
"What might be there?" asked Ron, "Maybe it's an exit door?"   
  
"There must be someone imprisoned there..." said Hermione, knocking the door, "Is somebody there?"   
  
"It's me!" said a voice, inside the door, "Snape! Who's outside?"   
  
"Is Cho Chang there with you?" asked Harry.   
  
"Who?" replied the voice. Hermione grasped Harry's arm, she had heard a noise. Somebody had started climbing the stairs, "Whoever is it outside, I'm imprisoned here, alone and without my wand. He took it away from me."   
  
"He? Who?" the steps were getting louder.   
  
"Somebody else, with my looks, but it's not me. Try to open the padlock, the key's here," he said and a key appeared under the door.   
  
"Don't do it!" a voice echoed from downstairs, it was Snape's unmistakable voice, "he's an impostor!"   
  
"What are we going to do now, Hermione?" whispered Ron, "Which one of them is the real Snape?"   
  
"I don't know! I can't see the eyes of anyone of them, how am I supposed to know?"   
  
"Who's upstairs?", Snape number two repeated.   
  
"How did you get the key being held inside the door?" asked Harry.   
  
"Potter? Is it you? Get me out of here or I'll put you in Detention for making inconvenient questions."   
  
"There's only one way to discover," said Hermione, "Harry, open the door."   
  
Snape 2's steps got even louder as he kept going upstairs, now even more quickly. Harry put the key into the padlock and Snape 2 appeared at the last casting of stairs and Hermione saw his eyes, "Don't open!"   
  
Too late. Somebody, wearing Snape's exact appearance, flung the door open, "Fools."   
  
"Expelliarmus!" shouted the true Snape from where he was. The trio ducked aside just in time to slip from the white light that disarmed the fake Snape, who jumped onto Hermione and seized her.   
  
"I'm going to strangle you, you disgusting know-it-all."   
  
"Impedimenta," shouted Ron, whose wand almost touched fake Snape's chest, who ended up falling at the other side of the room, just next to his own wand.   
  
He grabbed his wand and pointed it to Ron, "_Avada Kedavra!"_   
  
"No!" yelled Hermione, holding Ron, but nothing happened. Fake Snape ran through a door behind him and the real Snape reached them at the very moment.   
  
"You're lucky that one was incompetent," he said.   
  
Harry immediately remembered the class he had about the lethal curse Avada Kedavra, and how the teacher said it was necessary much magic behind the wand to conjure it.   
  
"I managed to be away from them until now, but I believe they got hold of Black and Sheeba. We have to go after him."   
  
"Who are they, professor?"   
  
"One of them is that bastard, Pettigrew. The other one I really don't know," said Snape, "I just know he uses much Polyjuice potion. He was wearing the looks of a student when I started following him, and now he's wearing my appearance."   
  
They walked towards the door where fake Snape disappeared, but at this very moment, an invisible someone's voice said behind them, "_Expelliarmus_!" their wands flew towards the opposite door, "Atonos!" a purple flame crossed the room and knocked all of them down, making them lose their senses.   
  
At the door, Wormtail removed his Invisibility Cloak and started laughing as a madman.   
  
Many miles away from there, a nurse witch yelled. The patient Sibyll Trelawney, who had gotten into the hospital unconscious, started changing her looks slowly. Some minutes later, she changed completely. Now she was a seventeen year old girl, with black hair and almond shaped eyes.   
  
She had turned into Cho Chang.


	16. 16 At Gargoyle's Gap

**Chapter 16 – At the Gargoyle's Gap**

"Harry! Harry," a whisper made his mind return slowly to reality. It was Sirius' voice, waking him from a dream, a nightmare, with Voldemort, in which they both fell twirling into the darkness and he was screaming as loudly as he could ever imagine screaming.

Harry felt no pain in his scar. _He_ was not close. Not yet.

Harry felt his body being compressed, as if he was in the middle of many moving cushions. He opened his eyes and noticed he was just in front of Sirius, but his whole body was held by the cushions, or whatever it was that was grasping him.

"They're rats," said Sirius. "We're in a pool full of rats."

Harry looked around himself. He could not tell where exactly he was, but it sure as hell was a very terrifying place to be. He saw Hermione, then Ron, both of whom were unconscious. He could see the back of Sheeba's head in front of him and just behind Sirius, and she seemed to be unconscious too. And just beside Sirius, there was Severus Snape's rugged and awake face. All of them were inside a pool that was completely full of rats.

"Harry, I need to know something... are you feeling weak?"

"No. I feel pretty much okay. Maybe a little bit dizzy, but besides that, I'm all right."

"Are you wearing the garment Sheeba gave you?"

"Yes."

"Great, now listen to me..."

"Well, well, well. A family meeting," said Wormtail's high pitch voice echoing through the cave. He got near the pool and went on, "really, it was far much more productive than I had imagined it to be. Who could imagine old Wormtail would catch at once two enemies and a traitor? This is my glory day."

"Pity it ain't going to last," said Sirius, looking at him with a provoking stare. "So, your rats keep not working, you see... nothing is happening to me, nor to Harry and Snape. It seems your master isn't going to like this at all."

"Very true, but it seems there are three people here whose lives are beginning to fade away. Look at the little Granger girl... a great mind that is going to think no more."

"No great loss," from the shadows in the end of the cave, a female voice was heard. A shadowy form in blue got closer and it quickly became clear that it was Sybil Trelawney, with her skinny face and dragon-fly eyes. "Hello, Potter. You're my guest; to my initiation. As a matter of fact, you're my special guest."

"Isn't she gorgeous?" Aaid Wormtail, whose shrill voice turned into girly giggles. 

He stepped near Trelawney and they kissed each other on the lips. Harry had never felt so much repugnance in his whole life.

"The two of you really deserve each other. You're meant to be."

"This is the end of your era, Harry Potter," said Trelawney between her teeth. "My prophecies finally are going to become true. Dumbledore's golden boy is going to turn into... past."

"Who can guarantee you that, Trelawney? You aren't Sheeba, and you've just guessed two prophecies right until today."

"Who told you that, Potter?" shouted a hysterical Trelawney. "Maybe it was your oh-so-perfect godmother? The one who never fails?"

"She's never failed. You've never hit upon the future, you only had two lucky guesses."

"Lucky guesses? I'll tell you who has only been lucky. I've always been a good student, very efficient, that's what I was. When I went to Hogwarts, I had hopes that I would be able to foresee the future, I've always been fascinated by the arts. My mother was a great seer, she had the Touch of Cassandra. Can you imagine my disappointment when I realized I had born so plain? Without any premonitory gifts at all? When I was invited to Hogwarts, I was told that I was going to study with an extraordinary girl. I was anxious to meet her, but she wasn't extraordinary at all. She was arrogant, distant, and all she did was despise me. I've hated her ever since the first time I laid my eyes on her, and my anger has just increased with time. She was a regarded clairvoyant, and I... well, everybody laughed at me behind my back. So I specialized in Confusion Charms. If I couldn't predict anything, nobody else would.

"But she disappeared, vanished... I thanked the Dark Lord so much; his ruses had kept the enemy away from me. I presented myself as a candidate for the Divination professorship at Hogwarts, which she had refused. Dumbledore accepted me because of my knowledge, but he's never given me the value I've always had. I've been isolated up that tower, until two years ago when I realized I had made a correct prediction. I knew it. I knew they were alive. I decided to stop being the great incompetent and become a Death Eater. I've gone personally to the Dark Lord. I chose a student who had looked for me because of a doubt in my subject, and with a very potent dose of Polyjuice Potion and some Frenzy Fluid, I changed places with her, simulated a sudden illness and she was taken instead of me to St. Mungo's. I'd be there until my Initiation day, then I'd fake my death and hers. It would be a piece of cake. I'd turn myself into a fake dead, like my dear Peter... and you, Potter, would be easily considered guilty for her death, we would make everything up, our plan was perfect. Then, Peter and I would set the rats on London, and we would be the greatest Muggle murderers among the Death Eaters.

"But she reappeared... Sheeba. I knew my Confusion Charms were running a great risk, and then I ran away from school, but I was followed by this idiotic Snape. Peter and I thought everything would end up badly, after all, but you, your godfather and those little friends of yours came here for us. You've got yourselves into the wolf's mouth, you imbeciles. Now, you're gonna die."

At this moment, Wormtail invoked, "Oh, my Lord! Your most faithful servant is calling upon thee. Come, come to me, Lord Voldemort, at the edge of the chasm at the Gargoyle's Gap. I invoke thee as a thousand years ago, the ancient lords convoked evil itself."

The word 'chasm' made Harry feel deja vú again. Chasm... what was it about chasms? At this very moment, a piercing and boiling pain hit his scar, makijng it feel as if his face was being torn apart. Just above him, Voldemort Apparated.

It had been almost an year since Harry had last seen him, but he could remember his appearance very well... the same snake looking face, the same lopsided eyes that looked like cat eyes, red and bloodshot. His hands were huge and white. He got near the pool and started laughing, and his laugh got higher and higher as he said who were there.

"Wormtail, I'd never expect such a thing from such an incompetent and lame servant as you are. You've surprised me. Harry Potter himself, my enemy, and away from Dumbledore's protection. Snape, the traitor, Black, the hero... and she, the clairvoyant, the last one... all of them united for the sacrifice... your fiancée deserves what I'm going to give her."

Voldemort stepped closer Sybil Trelawney and, grabbing her left arm, he thrust his nails into her flesh. The woman screamed insanely, and the blood drained through her arm, revealing a mark... a skull with a serpent inside its mouth. The Dark Mark; a Death Eater's identity. Voldemort started laughing out loud, the same laughter that, until the past year, Harry had only heard in his nightmares. The pain in his scar was unbearable. Voldemort got closer to the edge of the pool.

"Black, I've always supposed you'd turn to my side. You've always been rebellious, I thought I'd succeed in making you slip... but you have resisted, haven't you? You've resisted to my call... was it because of her or because of your noble friends? I believe that even you can't tell... If Wormtail's rats aren't able to get rid of you, I myself will throw you out into the chasm, but before that, I'll give you a gift... I'll let you see the woman you love being killed. Not at once, of course, but gradually, suffering. I know she's there for some more time than the others... maybe it won't even last that long... _Crucio_!"

Harry could see Sheeba's body shaking in pain behind Sirius, and he felt sorry that she had given him that garment. If only the rats could debilitate him, he would be able to die before being able to see all those people he loved being wrecked. It was when he remembered why the word 'chasm' made him feel that way. He decided to risk himself, as there was no other way out and shouted the loudest he could, "what a coward is the Dark Lord!"

"Are you provoking me, Potter?" Voldemort stopped torturing Sheeba and looked at Harry. "I can kill you right from here without even having to touch you."

"Exactly. Very easy, isn't it? No protection, no Dumbledore... even that way, it's still 2x0 for me... even if you kill me now, I've already defeated you twice... I'm starting to think that even if you kill me now, I win."

"But I _will_ kill you, slowly and painfully,"

"And cowardly, am I not right? Defenceless, inside a pool full of rats, you haven't even been able to catch me, Voldemort... you needed an old rat, who didn't even have heart enough to say your name when he was caught by Sirius. Set me free, let's duel."

Voldemort started laughing again, "So you want to die just like your father, don't you? As you wish.... Wormtail, set him free."

Harry tried to ignore Sirius and Snape's identical looks of 'are you crazy, boy?'. He was suspended in the air by Wormtail and fell just in front of Voldemort. It seemed the last time it happened was just yesterday (_deja vú again_, Harry thought). His scar kept aching.

"Don't you think you're going to use your wand to duel with me, Harry Potter. I'm clever enough to know our wands cannot fight against each other. Give him another wand, Wormtail. Any wand but his own."

If Harry had calculated it right, he would not need a wand... behind Voldemort, a little bit after the pool, a gap was being opened... he was right, it was the Gargoyle's Gap he had studied this exact week at Professor Binns's class. Voldemort had his back turned to the gap, and if Harry was quick enough, he would get what he wanted without needing his wand, or any kind of magic. Only his reflexes, that were really good, after all.

"All right. You may be the first, Voldemort."

Voldemort raised his wand (_...what do you see?_), Harry threw the wand in his hand inside the rats' pool (.._only you and the Dark Lord_...) and ran into Voldemort's direction (.._fighting?_) and jumped, casting all his weight over Voldemort's body. _(...no, not fighting... falling...) _The Dark Lord lost his balance and the two of them fell into the chasm.


	17. 17 Geràrd Gamagliel

**Chapter 17 – Gerárd Gamagliel**

Snape raised a hand into the air and grabbed the wand Harry had thrown. Before Sybil Trelawney and Peter Pettigrew could even say 'ah', he managed to yell, "**_Expelliarmus!_**"

Both Trelawney's and Wormtail's wands flew to his hand, and he gave them to Sirius instantly, without even thinking about it.

_"Átonos!"_ Sirius shouted to Trelawney and Wormtail, who fell fainted.

"_Aeros_" The two of them flew away from the rats' pool and they removed the others from the pool very quickly. Snape ran to Wormtail and Trelawney and conjured such strong ropes, so angrily, that they ended up looking like a couple of mummies.

Snape and Sirius did everything without talking to each other, only doing what they had to do, without taking notice of one another.

Snape looked at the unconscious bodies of Ron and Hermione, and, touching their chests with the tip of his wand, said "_Enervate!"_

He heard Sirius voice saying the same thing to Sheeba, and ran to a corner in the cave where Wormtail had put the stuff he had removed from his robes. He came back quickly with a vial in which there was some red liquid that looked like blood.

He put a drop onto Hermione's lips, and she looked at him without even saying a word. The same thing happened to Ron.

He stood up to see Sirius holding Sheeba's inert body, at the edge of the chasm. He was holding her very tightly and muttered, "Don't die, Sheeba, don't leave me."

Snape bent down beside her and held her wrist, and for the first time, he stared at Sirius, who looked back at him seriously, holding back the tears. Snape felt under her skin a weak pulsation, almost imperceptible, and said, "She's alive, Black. You know what to do."

Sirius looked at him again for a moment, and then pointed the wand at his own heart and said, "_Vita Primessencia_."

He held back a shout of pain while he felt his heart had stopped beating for a few seconds. Some heat left his chest and reached the surface of the wand as some faint rosy light, that was pulsating in the same rhythm as a heart. Sirius equilibrated the light on the tip of his wand, and, very carefully, he deposited it onto Sheeba's lips, and put his face close to hers. His lips touched her cold ones. He could feel the warmness of the light he had removed from his own heart on them. Without hesitating for even a single moment, he blew the light into her lips.

A soft light traveled all over Sheeba's body, and she shuddered. Snape, who was holding her wrist with his fingers, felt her pulse was returning, and looked at Sirius again. He didn't say a single word, but nodded, and could not help but smile. After hesitating for a moment, Sirius smiled back. She was going to survive.

"Sirius..." Sheeba opened her eyes, "Harry...?"

"Shhh. Be quiet... you're still very weak."

"Put a drop of this liquid onto her lips," said Snape, standing up and stepping away from the couple.

"Go, Sirius... go after Harry..."

Sirius remembered a promised he had made and called, "Snape, do me a favor, please. Stay with her."

"Where are you going?"

"I'll get Harry."

**

Harry had fallen into the gap holding Voldemort, who looked at him astonished. He was seizing his wand very tightly. Harry thought he was going to kill him, but Voldemort laughed out loud and said, "playing hero again, Potter? Did you think you were going to kill me in the fall? Did you think we were going to die together?"

Harry did not say anything, his scar suddenly stopped aching. Voldemort had Disapparated in the air and he was still falling. It was much easier than he had expected. He thought they were going to fall together and die, he did not know it was possible to Disapparate without touching the ground. Actually, he had thought of this when he fell off from his broomstick; when the garment Sheeba had given him prevented him from getting injured. But now, while he fell, he appraised the possibilities.

What if the garment had lost its powers, just as the Eye of the Tiger, that Hermione was wearing?

What if it just worked for brief falls? According to Professor Binns, the Gargoyle's Gap was about a mile and a half deep... has anybody jumped in a Bungee Jump with more than a mile and a half?

What if everything was wrong and he didn't ever stop falling?

The worst thing was that the fall seemed never to stop, and the anxiety was far worse than the fall itself. He was falling into the darkness, so fast he could barely see anything at the walls...

Suddenly, out of the blue, his body was rising in the air, rocking back and forth; up, down, up, down again, and when was Harry went really dizzy, he fell gently to the ground. And began to sink.

_I cannot believe I've survived the fall just to die stuck down in some quicksand... maybe in ten thousand years, they will find my fossil?_ He thought, trying to remain sane while he felt his whole body being sucked by the quicksand.

Suddenly, there was light, and a sturdy and rocky hand pulled him by his robes. Harry could see a huge gargoyle's ugly grinning face.

The gargoyle placed him on the stone he was and asked, "is thou able to walk?"

"Yeah. I'm okay, I mean, all covered by mud, besides that I'm okay."

"Many are those who fell and ended up at here, but thou is the very first one to survive..."

"And what a fall."

"Is thou a wizard?"

Harry hesitated for a moment. The last thing he had heard about gargoyles/wizards relationship was not really stimulating, and, considering the gargoyle's size, if it thought they were enemies, Harry would have, doubtlessly, an disadvantage.

"Actually, I'm still a student, at Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts! So is Godric Gryffindor acquainted to thee?"

"No, that's impossible. He's been dead for over a thousand years...."

"Gerárd always forgets you wizards live less than we do... I have not introduced myself yet, pardon," the gargoyle stood up the most it could, for he had been on his knees until then. "My name is Gerárd Gamagliel, the gargoyle of the seventh Gamagliel house, from the Galdino clan, Gampstone, Grunjer and Grunhenwald," he said and bowed. "Could you introduce yourself to me?" He looked up with his little rocky eyes to Harry.

"Harry Potter," said Harry, offering his hand. "Nice to meet you."

The gargoyle shook his hand and asked, "does thou want to disengage thee from the product of the earth over thou?"

"What? Oh, the mud! Yeah, it would be nice to get myself rid of it..."

"So follow the one who speaks to thee."

They went on walking across the ravine the gap had developed into. It was really dark down there, but Gerárd had a torch of Sacred Fire on his hand, and according to what he told Harry, that fire was really ancient and would never burn out, and that was a really good thing, for there was not any other source of light there. It seemed to be at the bottom of a chasm under a starless night.

They got to a water well where Harry got himself washed. The water was really warm, and Harry remembered it could only be this way, for they were really deep under the Earth's surface. After he was completely clean, he asked Gérard, "how can I get out of here?"

"Leave?"

"Yeah, leave."

"Do thou possess a pair of wings?"

"No."

"A broomstick?"

"Not here."

"Is thou oriental and own a magic carpet?"

"Not either."

"Then you cannot leave. Gérard is really sorry, but then thou will have to be imprisoned here as Gérard."

Just then, Harry remembered gargoyles could fly. "Can't you fly?" He asked.

"Not actually," replied Gérard grimly. "Not on these wings," and he showed Harry a pair of wings, one of which was broken right on its middle.

Harry felt terribly sorry for Gérard, who did not seem even to have an idea of how much time he had spent inside that gap.

"Is Gérard allowed to ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"The war. We have lost it, haven't we?"

"Yeah. And what a defeat."

"Gérard thought so," said the gargoyle. "Gérard fell here at the time of the war... then spent over two hundred years calling for someone... and when Gérard saw nobody replied, thought the war had been lost. Did we lose many of our kind?"

"It's not personal, is it?"

"No, thou has Gérard's word."

"Everyone died. You're the last one of your kind."

Gérard sighed. "Gérard knew it would be that way. Gérard just wanted to confirm," he began to talk his grief off, speaking ill of his gargoyle relatives who were killed a thousand years before, telling the most boring stories about family bickerings between the Greenshills, Grunds, Gladstones,... Harry listened to everything, thinking how sad it should be to stay a thousand years away from the world, without anybody to talk with.

Harry thought he had seen something like a shooting star up there, but then wiped the thoughts away and thought it had just been his imagination. After some time, he saw the light again, and thought it was lowering to the bottom of the gap.

He paid more attention and then realized what the light really was and his heart started beating what seemed to be twice its usual speed. Harry was hearing an unmistakable sound along with the approximation of the light. 

Gérard also noticed it and stood quiet, listening, and then, said, "Gérard thinks someone is coming to rescue Harry Potter." 

In a matter of minutes, the huge silhouette bulked gradually and then Harry saw it, the giant, noisy and incredibly friendly Dogtorcycle.


	18. 18 For a fair Judgement

**CHAPTER 18 – For a Fair Judgment**

Sirius grinned at Harry from his motorcycle and, ignoring completely the gargoyle's presence, said, "climb here, let's go."

"What about him?" asked Harry.

"Harry, this is a gargoyle!"

"He's very nice, Sirius," said Harry and his godfather glared at him. "I didn't know you had such a prejudice."

"I think you've been spending too much time with Rubeus Hagrid."

"Sirius, he's saved my life."

"I'm getting sick of this thing, it seems everybody saves everybody's life around here..."

"Gérard don't want a father and a son to argue because of him," said the gargoyle meekly.

"He's not my father, he's my godfather," Harry looked gravely at Sirius, who was looking back at him in disbelief. It seemed Harry was willing to have his first adolescence rebelliousness outbreak, and with him. After everything that had happened the past few hours, it was the most absurd thing to happen.

"Harry, we're not taking a gargoyle to Hogwarts... it's not like carrying a kitten to home after a rainstorm, I can guarantee you that."

"Gérard does not want to go, Harry Potter," the gargoyle cut him off.

"What? You want to stay here?"

"This is Gérard's home. There is nothing out there Gérard wants for himself... there is only one thing Gérard asks the wizard on the strange-looking horse who barks like a dog... could thou fix my wing? There is nothing to worry over doing so. Gargoyle wings cannot take Gérard beyond the gap... Gérard just want to be able to go a little higher... a little higher than the bottom."

Sirius grinned. He knew that gargoyle wings could not ever take that rocky body higher than 30 feet from the ground. Without even hesitating for a moment, he pointed his wand at the gargoyle's broken wing and said, "_Reparo!"_

And Gérard's wings were brand new again. The gargoyle tested his wings with a grin on his face, which, even consisting of a rocky material, could show the joy of a one thousand years wait. He thanked Sirius and then escorted him and Harry up to a point where he could not go higher, and then he started waving while he saw the motorcycle's light fading away in the darkness. On the way, Sirius told Harry what had happened and how he managed to make the motorcycle pass through the barrier, which was considerably easier after the Death Eater were knocked out. When they got to the surface, there were lots of Aurors and policemen from the Ministry.

Two Ministry policemen kept watching two mummies who had ropes all around them and Harry assumed the mummies were Trelawney and Wormtail. He could also see Sheeba in a corner being tended to by a very short wizard physician; Ron and Hermione sitting on a stone and sharing a blanket; Snape talking to Albus Dumbledore, who was listening to him with a grave expression on his face. Next to the pool of rats, Mad Eye Moody seemed to be making a spell to keep them down there and being watched by Cornelius Fudge, who was visibly nervous. When he saw Sirius, he shouted, "Go catch him, that's Sirius Black!"

"Don't be ridiculous," said Snape, "I've already told you he's innocent and now he's even able to prove it."

"Severus Snape is right," said Dumbledore, walking towards the Minister of Magic with an expression on his face Harry had seen only a few times in his life, "I've been asking you for a fair judgment for Sirius Black for two years, Cornelius, and you've been refusing to do it since then. Now I have two respectable wizards such as Sheeba Amapoulos and Severus Snape as witnesses and now I don't ask you, but I _demand _a fair judgment for Sirius Black. He _deserves_ this reparation."

Fudge gulped, he could not do anything about it now.

"And he has the right to wait for the trial at liberty, that's the least you can do about him after keeping him for twelve years unfairly at Azkaban with your Dementors."

**

Afterwards, Harry was told why he, Sirius and Snape had been the only ones who had not been affected by Wormtail's rats; Snape had a protective garment too, and it was him who had taught Sheeba how to weave it. He was still held back at the hospital with Ron and Hermione, and all of them had a bottle of rejuvenating serum floating by their sides. They were sitting at a drawing room with large armchairs, chatting. Ron and Hermione told him how Sirius gave Sheeba the kiss of life and Hermione emphasized that it cost the person who had given it a year of his life. Harry told them how Voldemort Disapparated, and how he thought he was going to die at the bottom of the abyss and about his stroll with Gérard, the gargoyle.

Then, Ron asked, "You know who's also here, don't you, Harry? Cho Chang. She's been duped by that loathsome Trelawney, it seemed she was willing to talk to the dead..."

"Yeah, I know," said Harry. "I'm going to visit her later," he added, but did not feel the faintest desire to do so. "Why don't we go to see Sheeba?"

They got to Sheeba's room, and she was currently being paid a visit by three witches, and she seemed to be much better then. She was still too pale, very true, and the mark on her forehead looked even darker, but she was smiling. The witches were speaking to her so cheerfully they could hear the sound of their laughter in the corridor.

Lupin and Sirius were talking by the window, and eventually, Sirius looked annoyed at the witches ("jealousy," Harry thought). The sun on Lupin's face highlighted the dark circles under his eyes and he looked tired, as usual.

"Harry!" Sheeba exclaimed, "Come to meet my friends: these are Silvia Spring," she said, pointing at a rather chubby witch, with a very friendly face and really beautiful hair, "Beth Fall," a witch with tanned skin, black hair and a malicious stare, "and Liza Lionheart," a red-haired witch with an aristocratic mien and a rather reserved stare. "This is my godson, isn't he adorable?"

And it was followed by a praise session in which the witches made him embarrassed, talking only about his boldness and bravery. Harry tried to look around, feeling his ears burn, and then, he saw...

A little bit farther from Sheeba's bed, there was the most adorable teenage witch he had ever seen: she was a brunette with a large face and malicious black eyes. She looked at him and grinned sheepishly... Harry felt an urge to invite her for a ride on his broomstick. He did not even pay much attention when somebody said, "Bianca, come here to meet Harry Potter."

The teenage witch got closer to him and said a very quiet "hi" and he replied in the same tone of voice. . Just then he realized she was Beth Fall's daughter and wondered why this girl was not at Hogwarts.

"She studies at High Hill, Harry," Sheeba told him as soon as the witches left the room.

"Who?"

"Bianca, Harry. I saw the way you looked at her," said Sheeba, giggling. "Send her an owl, she's gonna love it..."

"Speaking of owls, Sheeba, there is one more for you," said Sirius, holding jealously a showy black owl. "I think you correspond with too many people," he added, giving her a magical card that danced and sang, giving wishes for her to be completely healthy again soon.

After some time, a one-eyed yellowish owl arrived and Sirius read the name of the sender, "Who is Sobrenatural de Almeida?"

"He's friend of mine, from Brazil."

"When I say there's too many people..."

**

Sirius's judgment took place a few days later. Sirius presented himself in front of the judge and Ablus Dumbledore presented the defense in five minutes, calling only Snape and Sheeba to testify (which frustrated Ron a lot, because he had willed to take a part in it, as ever). The simple proof of Wormtail's existence seemed to acquit Sirius.

When Avatar Fernandez, Auror and Ministry attorney, stood up, Harry thought some sort of debate was about to begin, but he just said, "Before irrefutable proves, the Ministry of Magic retracts all the accusations against Sirius Black, returning him all his past functions, and asks this trial to award a medal to him for showing bravery on several occasions."

Simple just like this. In less than twenty minutes, Sirius Black was completely free.


	19. Epilogue Back two Hogwarts

CHAPTER 19 – BACK TO HOGWARTS

Some people need years to be loved, other people are loved for the first sight. Harry was thinking about this as he watched to Sirius and Sheeba's wedding being celebrated by Albus Dumbledore at Hogwarts. In a deeper analysis, he has loved his godparents ever since he met them, and they had showed, in many different ways, that they loved him too. Now they were his true family, much different from the Dursleys, whom in years Harry could not feel more than some respect.

Sirius and Sheeba looked very different now; they were wearing elegant white robes; Sheeba wore also an eye-catching flower garland. Next to her, Hermione and Bianca, who were wearing beautiful bride's maids robes, were whispering to each other, and next to Sirius, Lupin executed his best man role very seriously arm in arm with Silvia Spring (they make a nice couple, thought Harry). Between Harry and Ron, Rubeus Hagrid shed tears desperately, blowing his nose using a handkerchief that resembled a table-cloth "Isn't it beautiful?" he sobbed, "Just thinking they've waited so much time…"

Ron rolled his eyes exasperatedly and Harry grinned.

The party had been really good. Ron asked Hermione to dance with him and Harry noticed they could not stop (Restless Feet Potion?), and, with some distance away, Severus Snape watched to everything solemnly grave. 

In a moment, Harry saw Snape calling Sirius and telling him something; Sirius was staring at him gravely and nodding in agreement. Harry also watched as Sirius reluctantly stretched out his hand and Snape shook it, distending his face in something that resembled a smile. Sheeba, who showed up next to Harry this very moment, whispered at him, "Harry, this is the day when hell is freezing over…"

"What?"

"Never mind… Harry, could you entertain Bianca for me? She doesn't know Hogwarts."

Harry turned on his heels and faced Bianca Fall's charming smile. He felt as a delightful warmness flowed through his body and show up on his face; he was sure he must had been red. _Oh, why didn't I have some Restless Feet Potion?_

He asked her to dance with him, even though he was a terrible dancer, and felt simply ruffled as Bianca stretched out her neck and whispered at him, "Someone told me you have a Firebolt… will you invite me to a ride?"

Harry gulped and opened wide his eyes, and bumped into Ron, who mouthed something like "Hey, come on…", over Hermione's back.

"Sure," Harry nodded, feeling his ears getting red.

Half an hour later, he and Bianca were flying around Hogwarts on his Firebolt and Harry felt her hands pleasantly holding him around his waist. That was much better than a good butterbeer bottle… wait! It was way better than seizing the Golden Snitch in front of Draco Malfoy… it was better than… anything else he had ever tasted. For a moment, it was like Voldemort and all the Death Eaters had not ever existed, as if he had not ever passed his childhood locked in a cupboard.

"Do you want some action?" he asked her.

"Sure," she said, holding his waist even tighter and then, Harry raced with all the swiftness he could and whirling his Firebolt, and then racing up, and then diving again… when they landed on the floor, Bianca Fall's hair were messy and her bride's maid's garland had simply disappeared. She put her hands on her face and said, "My face is cold, can you feel it?" she pulled one of Harry's hands and put it on her face, looking up and into his eyes. Harry hesitated for a moment before he pulled her tightly and kissed her, feeling the fresh night air in her lips. Certainly, it was better than Quidditch.

When Dumbledore announced Sirius and Sheeba were leaving and everybody at the Great Hall clapped, Harry ran after his godparents and embraced them. They walked towards Sirius's motorcycle, that was standing in front of Hogwarts; its engine was making a low noise, just like a happy dog.

"Where are you going?" asked Ron, who was lightly swinging, just like Hermione.

"Somewhere far away," said Sirius as he put on his helmet, "and I hope we don't come back so soon, we really need some great vacation."

"Yeah, we do, but we'll need to be back soon. Dumbledore's going to need us later on. Things are going to get really bad, many really, really serious things are going to happen and…" said Sheeba until Sirius cut her off.

"Could you please forget about it now? Ron, don't marry a clairvoyant, okay? This is really awful and can drive any man crazy…"

"Sirius, you aren't the best guy to give this kind of advice," said Harry with mock seriousness.

"Harry, take care, and please, don't get into trouble while we're on honeymoon, okay?"

"The same goes to you, Sirius," Sirius looked suspiciously at Sheeba, who was laughing behind him. She turned at Harry and whispered, "At least you've learned something: if you want to make a good impression to a girl, you have to show her what you're best at. See you soon, Harry!"

"See you soon!"

Sirius's motorcycle raced upwards and passes through the mountains as an arrow, fading away.

"I hope you've done at least Tuesday's homework," said a cordial voice behind Harry and Ron, "And Weasley, I still want to know what magazines were that ones you were talking about."

Well, there was still some time left until the end of this school year…

**_THE END_**

**_(To be continued in "The Sacred Fire")_**

A/N: Are you curious to know what happened with Harry's Confusion Ice? I may tell you later…


End file.
